Where Do We Go from Here?

Printers aren't the only ones worrying about the fact that print as a medium is in decline. Everyone working with the industry is affected by these shifting sands beneath our feet.

Print as an industry will survive, but it will continue to undergo dramatic changes as technology offers us new media choices, and as preferences shift.

Every week I read about printers going out of business. Whether or not I personally know the company, I am instantly saddened. If you listen carefully, you'll hear the collective sigh among the tens of thousands of professional print buyers, too.

Print buyers take no joy in news of a company's closing. Like me, they experience a loss on a grander scale. It's not that they are resistant to change or newer media; they just love this business.

Something else is going on. Buyers today are asking themselves - and me - what's next for them?

What if their company shifts away from a dependence on printed materials? Where does that leave them?

Are their roles in jeopardy?

Will professional print buyers become obsolete? Or further marginalized?

I'm pulled into such discussions regularly, and I have opinions but no easy answers. Months ago, I decided that our September conference needed to address it. More on that later.

Print is but one medium we all have to know about, even if we don't dabble in any other. Think about your customers, prospects and suppliers. Where - and how - are they getting their information?

If you're like me, you'll find they get information in many ways:

• In printed materials like direct mail, newspapers, magazines and letters

• On their smart phones and PDAs

• On the Internet

• Web sites

• Search engines

• Emails

• Enewsletters

• Instant Messaging

• Blogging

• Social networking sites

• RSS feeds

• Photo-sharing sites

• Videos

• Radio and TV

• Events, including classrooms, seminars, trade shows, and professional organizations

• Good, old fashioned conversation

This is an incomplete list, but I thought of all of these options for our own Conference promotions. (Don't believe me? Go to YouTube and search under print buyers conference.)

Print buyers are affected in a different way, as they may be asked by managers to craft a communications proposal for the near future, where print is but one option. This means they have to educate themselves and figure out which media to use, and when, and how.

Imagine that you, the corporate print buyer, are your firm's resident expert on media. They're looking to you for guidance and leadership about how to best use the media that exist today.

You shouldn't feel handcuffed by the current decline in print. You should study newer media to be as current as possible.

And isn't this is a perfect opportunity for a new generation of media companies? Such companies can advise us on how to divvy up our marketing budget wisely. I'd love that kind of expertise.

This fall at our print buyers conference, we're acknowledging this need to explore new media in a number of ways.

Peter Muir of Bizucate is covering newer media in one of his sessions, called "Buying the Campaign? It's a Lot More than Print." His other session is called "Sitting at the Big People's Table: Marketing Ideas and Initiatives that Will Empower Print Buyers." I asked him to create this session especially for us.

Dr. Joe Webb (Mighty Joe Webb?) will cover "It's 2018: Did Printing Survive?" at the Conference, because again, I asked him to look ahead. If anyone can, Dr. Joe can.

Keynoter Alan Rosenspan will kick off Friday the 12th with a session on Creativity, which is the foundation of most marketing campaigns (or should be).

Reynolds DeWalt's Scott Dubois will cover cross-media campaigns. He will show us why it's so much more than print today.

Last, and most importantly, we have added Roundtable Discussion sessions to each Conference day. Print buyers will be able to sit down with their peers and discuss specific topics that are best addressed in small groups.

One topic will definitely be, "Where do we go from here?" I am looking for couple of attendee volunteers to lead this discussion.

No one has an answer for that question, by the way. There is no "expert." The answer(s) will be decided by individuals as they begin to reshape their jobs.

Print buying will still be a function of their work, but for many buyers, it may never again be the main function. Print buyers will become media experts, and print will forever remain in the mix.