Summary

The American Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ANPA) placed this year’s annual technical exposition and conference - its 63rd - ‘under the topical motto "Managing in Tough Times". Indeed, the American newspaper industry has been, depending on the region, complaining for at least a year about declining advertising income and sagging circulations. Speculation is rife whether these unfortunate circumstances are a mere reflection of the depressed state of the U.S. economy or mark the beginning of a long-term evolution. Accordingly, U.S. newspapers have taken a number of measures ranging from combatting an assumed overall disenchantment with the media to simple internal cost cutting. So it was no surprise that this year’s ANPA/TEC in Las Vegas did not see as many visitors as usual. Many of those who came, however, had, according to exhibitors, precise projects in mind and they received particularly attentive treatment. Which again proves that the number of visitors, although an important criteria in itself, is not an indication of the actual effectiveness of an event. Indeed, visitors had every reason to be satisfied with the level of the technical exhibits, which showed, in all areas, a high level of inventiveness and adaptation to the users’ needs. Could it be that hard times provide a push to industrial imagination? Internal cost cutting itself seems to have reached its limits. Ralph J. Martin, V.P. and Division Manager of Thomson Newspapers, Chicago, put it this way: "Most newspapers are already running lean, so tightening the newshole, cutting back on travel and the usual methods of dealing with recession may indeed be counter-productive." Instead R. Martin recommended that newspapers make a "radical" shift to specialist thinking rather than mass/volume thinking. If this approach is recognised by the press, it will, without doubt, enable newspapers and their suppliers to regain the vitality they have so often displayed in the recent past. As in the preceding years, IFRA provides its members, with this Special Report, an overview of what appeared interesting to the undersigned at ANPA/TEC 91. Many of the exhibits - and a lot more - can be seen at IFRA 91 in Amsterdam from October 14th to the 17th!