Summary

In the numerous press and mailroom guides published by Ifra over the years, the difficulties associated with investments for the newspaper industry have been well documented. These publications contain not only technical specifications, but also advice on purchasing and installation requirements for capital equipment. What they do not contain are accurate forecasts of future developments in the newspaper market. The very things newspaper equipment manufacturers and their customers need to know in order to prosper. Speculating about what will be required for future commercial success is easy. Getting it right is the difficult part! With this in mind, Ifra challenged its Newspaper Production Committee (NPC) to forecast newspaper production trends for the near future (2-3 years), mid-term (4-7 years) and long-term (8-12) years. Under the guidance of NPC Chairman Thomas Landolt (Ringier) and Moderator Erwin Hunkeler, the participants at the eighth NPC meeting, held at the SV-Druckzentrum Steinhausen, in Munich, Germany, on 22-23 April 2002, accepted the challenge and set out to do some educated guessing on 16 theses (Fig. 1) that had been suggested as a starting point for discussion.