Lexington, Kentucky, USA - April 2, 2001 - WhatTheyThink, a leading Internet portal for the graphic arts industry, has just completed a study of print buyers in the United States. The study focused on the satisfaction level of buyers with their document design and internal procedures for procuring design work. The survey was conducted with 285 print buyers from a variety of industry segments. The questions asked: Excluding simple word processing documents, which "best" describes how your company creates new documents? Rate your overall satisfaction with the design of your company's printed materials. A majority of buyers (73%) said they design a majority of their documents in-house. Only 7 percent of buyers said they used their primary print vendor to design their material and 18 percent said they use a graphic artist and/or design firm. (3 percent had no opinion.) When asked about satisfaction levels with the design of their documents, 47 percent said they were “very satisfied.” 43 percent said they were “satisfied” and only 8 percent said their document design “needed improvement.” (2 percent had no opinion) Randy Davidson, President of WhatTheyThink, explained the cross tabulation of the data. “It was interesting to note that satisfaction levels remained the same whether the buyer used an outside vendor or whether they performed the work in-house. However, buyers using their primary print vendor in a dual role as designer were less likely to be “very satisfied” with the design of their work. Overall, 47 percent of buyers were “very satisfied” - but only 31 percent of buyers using their print vendor for design were “very satisfied.”” WhatTheyThink provides news, interviews and research daily at their web site. The portal has nearly 15,000 subscribers who get valuable information about print buyers, printers and suppliers to the industry. For more information, visit www.whattheythink.com.