Margie Dana

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Move over, all you press manufacturers. Make way, please, you technology developers. It's time for the voice of the print buyer to be heard. Buyers have spent years in the background, toiling purposefully in departments like corporate communications, purchasing, and creative services. Let this be the start of new era, one in which buyers of commercial printing share their ideas and make a difference.

Taking print buyers out of the background and moving them to the fore requires determination and an all-too-rare acknowledgement that their insights can help strengthen the printing industry. Are you with me?

I'll go one better: I would say to you that buyers' insights, as well as their presence at and participation in major industry events, can help promote printing and the graphic arts.

How can this be bad for printing? Give customers new ways to learn and to be heard, then sit back and listen to the buzz about printing.

Who's Who

I used to think that describing the printing industry to an outsider was difficult – until I started to explain who and what a print buyer is. Print buying is a profession that flies far below the radar. You don't identify with it unless you're in the graphic arts.

Print buyers are the corporate and agency professionals whose job it is to source commercial printing and work with the print providers. They're in every industry, populating companies of all sizes.

The trickiest part of identifying print buyers is the fact that they have dozens of titles. When I bought print (in the '80s and '90s, first for a university and then for a mutual fund company), the title of print buyer was more common. Today, it's pretty rare.

Here's a true story. A year and a half ago, we held a Boston Print Buyers' event with special guest speaker Frank Romano (yes, that Frank Romano). One hundred people came to hear him, every single one of them a professional who bought print. There were 52 different titles represented by those attendees. Here's a sampling:

Creative Director Director of Print Production Director of Marketing Services Director of Publications Director, Catalog Production Graphic Designer

Print Production Coordinator Procurement Specialist Public Relations & Marketing Manager Publishing Advisor Purchasing Manager Traffic & Production Coordinator

Only two people out of 100 had the actual title of print buyer. So whether you sell buy or sell print services, please note: There are no naming standards for this job function. That's not all. The responsibility for buying print is often spread among different departments within an organization. Marketing departments, creative departments, purchasing departments, and editorial/communications departments are the places where print purchasing pros are likely to be found in corporate America.

I'm interested in learning about buying behaviors among subsets of buyers. For example, do print buyers in pharmaceutical companies have a unique set of business challenges? How about buyers in the insurance industry? What needs do they have that the printing industry needs to know about?

Want to Help?

I can help you the most if you help me a little. Professors lecture. Columnists write. And I write best if I can establish a dialogue with readers. So please tell me this –

If you're a professional print buyer, what do you want to know? Send me your topics no matter how broad or how specific.

And if you're on the manufacturing side, what is it you wonder about buyers?

I'm all ears (and hair). Please email me at mdana@bostonprintbuyers.com and tell me what you think.

©2007 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You're free to forward this email to friends and colleagues: please do! However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

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Celebrate New England Printing!

The Boston Litho & Craftsmen's Club is producing the 30th Annual Gallery of Superb Printing on Tuesday, May 8th, at the Marriott Burlington (MA) Hotel. Cocktails are at 5:30 and dinner, 6:45 pm. This is an awards show that recognizes the excellence among New England printers. Tickets are $70 each. To reserve your seat, call Larry Crichton at (978) 975-3100 x 139. I will be there - hope you will be, too.

BPB POLL!

Print customers, please tell us -
How important is "going green" with your printing?

• It's a definite priority for me and my company.

• It's on the horizon for us; we're researching it.

• I'm interested - but it's not all that critical.

• Not important.

• I don't really know what it means.

Cast your vote today. Go to our home page at www.bostonprintbuyers.com. It's on the bottom right.

New Job Posted

Print/Electronic Production Coordinator at Wellesley Information Services in Dedham, MA. Just posted this week!

Technical Editor (Production-oriented) at Analog Devices in Norwood, MA.

Read details on our Job Bank page.

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