Your company is actively supporting the Print Innovation Awards 2019. Why – in your opinion – is print innovation important for the news publishing industry?

Our business is challenging. Printers/publishers needs to adapt to market situations and continuously create new business opportunities in order to remain a sustainable business. There are numerous of successful examples that give a sincere boost to the whole industry. Therefore we feel it is important to support such innovations and award shows that put those successful companies in the spotlight.

There is a wide range of innovations. The Print Innovation Awards offer seven categories and there might even be more areas of innovations. Which kind of print innovations do you think are most interesting and why?

It goes without saying that all innovations are interesting and important. Personally, I would like to put the products for young readers in the spotlight. Reason for this is that my daughter recently came home with a newspaper, specifically written for children. Besides the fact that it made her proud reading a similar “newspaper” as her father, it actually educates her in a different way she was used to. She likes it and looks forward to the next one, great product! More important is to keep young readers as publishers with you along the way, I guess there is room for another innovation.

Can innovations in print help publishing companies to improve their business situation or extend their market? Do you know of any examples or case studies?

Of course, it’s essential. The newspaper for children is one of them, another example is magazine format inserts that give newspaper subscribers the feeling of “value for money”.

What has to happen that print innovations are promoted more widely in the international publishing industry? What can publishing companies do, and what should print customers look for?

The results of the innovations should be widely spread in form of a case study or executive summary. It good to hear about “new stuff” but it’s better to learn what it has brought to the company with respect to revenues. It’s all about marketing, so spread the word in any way and follow-up actively in order to make sure there will be a good match between supplier/customer.