"The internet had nothing to do with the obsolescence of stripping. Apple Computer and Scitex had everything to do with that. More recently, computer to plate removed another step in the process. As a buyer of catalog-quality four color process printing, I really liked that change, due to greater speed, lower cost and FM (frequency modulated) screening ... no more moiré patterns, which was a major problem for me, since I do a lot of apparel work."
It's very analgous to the buggy whip/car industry example - yes, new digital printing tech has removed old jobs, but new jobs rise to take their place. Instead of film, we have direct to plate, which lowered prices. Digital printing is booming huge - there are plenty of areas with no digital presses located locally - a $150K investment there would make you rich. Prepress is still needed to process files, and new technologies in workflow means more work will process faster - the work we used to reject as we did'nt have the time now get printed. Color and color professionals still demand top dollar, and we still need press ops and ink houses and film houses for scanning and film output.
If anything, the company I work for prints MORE now than we have in the past, as our sales have swelled due to a bigger awareness and reaching new customers via the internet. We also buy a LOT of ink-jet related printing, in oversized posters and banners and trade show materials. That market continues to boom as well and new products come to market. The idea that I can create a campaign and have it printed on banners that can cover the side of a building, at prices that don't cause you to have an instant haert attack, is so incredibly cool. Most fo the guys I knew who lost jobs at presses doing the outdated tech like film stripping and plate making are now working at these companies, and making MORE money.
The only printers who are seriously challenged are the local mom and pop printers - the Sir Speedy's and AlphaGraphics. They need to upgrade to compete, and often can't. It's a tough world for them, when a $150 Epson inkjet printer can outperform them in small quantities, and color accuracy on color laser printing and digital printing is killing off one or two color press jobs. (But they still get a good chunk of the bindery/collation market).
I've found that the larger e-commerce sites are excellent prospects for me, for my knowledge of direct marketing copy and creative technique, for my photo studio, for quality color printing and for mailing services. Once they reach a certain scale and sales begin to plateau, print comes back into the picture as a way to drive online sales and reach new customers. I'm not put off by the internet in the least. It's been very helpful to me, in more ways than one. The length of print runs has been flat or even declining for several years, but that has been more than made up for with shorter run, niche titles.