Digital Publishing

Offerings Available at:

• Kingwood
• Montgomery
• North Harris

Salary:
Desktop publishers held about 32,000 jobs in 2006. About 35 percent worked for newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishers, while 24 percent worked in the printing and related support activities industry. Other desktop publishers work for professional, scientific, and technical services firms and in many other industries that produce printed or published materials.

The printing and publishing industries are two of the most geographically dispersed industries in the United States, and desktop publishing jobs are found throughout the country. Although most jobs are in large metropolitan cities, electronic communication networks and the Internet allow some desktop publishers to work from other locations.

Job Growth:
Employment of desktop publishers is expected to experience little or no change over the 2006-2016 decade because more people are learning basic desktop publishing skills as a part of their regular job functions in other occupations and because more organizations are formatting materials for display on the web rather than designing pages for print publication.

Employment of desktop publishers is expected to grow 1 percent between 2006 and 2016, which is considered little or no change in employment. Desktop publishing has become a frequently used and common tool for designing and laying out printed matter, such as advertisements, brochures, newsletters, and forms. However, increased computer processing capacity and widespread availability of more elaborate desktop publishing software will make it easier and more affordable to use for people who are not printing professionals. As a result, the need for people who specialize in desktop publishing will slow, as more people are able to do this work.

In addition, organizations are increasingly moving their published material to the Internet to save the cost of printing and distributing materials. This change will slow the growth of desktop publishers, especially in smaller membership and trade organizations, which publish newsletters and small reports. Companies that produce large reports and rely on high quality and high resolution color and graphics within their publications, however, will continue to use desktop publishers to lay out publications for offset printing.