Here's a sentence you don't read often in this industry lately: things are looking up.

The German printing and media sector just posted its best monthly reading since February, after three rough months in a row. Order books are healthier than they were a year ago. And there are parts of the market growing fast right now too. If you work in print, packaging, or anything that touches a press, this is worth five minutes of your time.

What actually happened in June

Every month, the Bundesverband Druck und Medien (BVDM) publishes a business climate index for the German print and media industry, built from surveys run through the ifo Institute. It's the closest thing this industry has to a heartbeat monitor.

In June, that heartbeat picked up.

Here are the numbers that matter:

  • The overall business climate index rose 2.7 percent to 89.0 points, the best reading since February, after March, April, and May all came in lower.
  • The index for how companies rate their current situation jumped 3.1 percent to 90.1 points. That's actually 5.9 percent higher than the same month last year.
  • Order books improved too. Only 32 percent of companies called their backlog poor, down from a much rougher picture twelve months ago.
  • Expectations for the next six months ticked up as well, even though companies are still playing it a bit safe.

None of these numbers alone would make headlines. Together, they're a genuinely good month, and a welcome one after a choppy stretch.

Why this matters more than one good month

A single strong month doesn't fix an industry. Nobody is claiming that. What it does do is confirm two very concrete things: order books are in better shape than they were a year ago, and companies are rating their current situation higher than they have in months. That's not proof the hard stretch is fully behind us, but it's real, and it's not nothing.

European print volume has fallen by more than a fifth since 2017, and that reset was real too. But here's the part that gets missed in every gloomy headline about print: while volume shrinks, value is shifting somewhere else entirely, and that shift is starting to show up in the numbers.

Where the real growth is happening

Packaging and digital are quietly carrying a lot of the industry's momentum right now.

  • Packaging already makes up close to 45 percent of the European commercial print market.
  • Digital print is forecast to grow almost three times faster than the market overall through 2034.
  • Labels are outperforming too, as brands push for shorter runs, faster turnaround, and more personalization.

So the industry is specializing, and that specialization is adding real extra demand into the wider print world. That's good news for the businesses running those lines directly, and good news for everyone else connected to the same industry too, including the traditional runs that still make up its backbone.

Here's what you need to take with you

  • German print's current situation index and order books are both healthier than a year ago, and June was the best month since February.
  • This year has been choppy, not a smooth climb, so treat one good month as encouraging, not as proof the hard stretch is fully over.
  • Packaging, digital, and labels are adding real extra demand into the industry, and that's good news that reaches the whole ecosystem, traditional print included.
  • Order books are often the number worth watching closest, they tend to show up in the real world before sentiment surveys catch up.

This industry has been through a tough couple of years, and it's still adapting, and still finding new ground to grow on. Let's keep doing the work. The future looks brighter than the headlines usually give it credit for.

FAQ

What is the BVDM/ifo business climate index for German print?

It's a monthly, survey-based index published by the Bundesverband Druck und Medien (BVDM), built from research run through the ifo Institute, tracking the confidence and order situation of Germany's print and media companies.

How much did the print business climate improve in June 2026?

The overall index rose 2.7 percent to 89.0 points, the best reading since February, while the index for how companies rate their current situation jumped 3.1 percent to 90.1 points, 5.9 percent higher than the same month a year earlier.

Does one good month mean the print industry's downturn is over?

Not on its own. Order books and current-situation ratings are healthier than a year ago, but 2026 has been a choppy year rather than a smooth recovery, so one strong month is encouraging rather than conclusive.