In my last column, I mentioned we would discuss the subject of vendor site visits in this column. If you will permit me, I am going to hold off on that until next time.

Why you ask? (Or at least I hope you are asking!)

Over in the eCommunities at PrintPlanet.com, I posted a message in the “Print Buyer Forum.” In my question, I asked how many print production professionals there were in the forum. This was accidentally misinterpreted as "print production" within a printing facility.

Now this is not the first time I have run this flag up the pole. As a matter of fact, my original introduction to Randy Davidson (WhatTheyThink.com CEO), was over my unhappiness that the only choice, when registering at the site was to choose print buyer!

To further disclose my feelings on this subject, I sent a letter to PrintMedia Magazine, (a great monthly for people in our business), complaining on the same subject…but allow me to scream from the mountain tops again – and I promise to stop with the cliches!

My thanks to Gretchen Kirby; Editor-in-Chief of PrintMedia, for allowing me to recreate my letter to the editor here, with a few minor changes.

“Who are you?

The rock group, The Who, asked this very question years ago, and a generation stood up and listened. Now I believe it is time for a new generation, a generation of Print Production Professionals, to stand up and be counted.

Recently I have been asked this question while registering at printing industry related web sites. Unfortunately, these sites only give me one choice: print buyer. Now, I know print buying is an important function; the problem is I am not a print buyer, I am a Print Production Professional.

You may ask, "Is there a distinction?’ I have to admit, I thought it might just be a pet peeve of mine until I asked a few colleagues for their thoughts. Joyce Hurd is a senior vice president of production at Hill/Holliday, Boston. She’s a veteran of the agency business and feels that the term "print buyer" does not fit her at all. "A Production Professional is very executional," she says. "There is so much more on our table.”

Joyce draws on an experience with a past client. The print buyers rarely participated in the early creative stages of the projects. They simply received a spec sheet developed by the agency’s production team, and set out to award the print job to the lowest bidder. This sometimes required a change to the specs. In any event, the agency wasn’t always informed of the changes, causing a few raised eyebrows when the job was delivered. "Those people were buyers," Hurd stresses. "They could (also) buy widgets. But on that day, they were buying printing."

This reminded me of a similar encounter: At the time I was selling printing, I had a meeting with a gentleman from a very large public utility. I was there to discuss an annual report project. As we discussed specifications of the project, one of his co-workers interrupted to inform him that the office was running low on toilet paper! "Gee, I am sorry! Was the 70lb. Gloss text not supposed to be put in the men’s room?"

When I asked Joe Hendricks, associate production director or RappCollins Worldwide, how he felt about the print buyer label, he said, "I don’t get insulted, It just becomes obvious to me that they have no idea what they are talking about. I certainly buy printing, but I am also involved in the planning, creative input, management of the process, quality control and in addition, the entire lettershop program."

Production Managers have so many responsibilities that a print buyer never touches. The production manager must have the skills to sit with the creative team and help design the project. How will it fold? Do we need to downsize slightly to fit the equipment better? Will we have problems with ghosting, color matching? Is the piece correctly sized for postal specifications? We must know the marketing strategies of the campaign. What is the project meant to do? If we have this information, we can suggest formats that will help our creative partners and in turn, our clients, to succeed.

Even PrintMedia Magazine (which used to be called "Publishing and Production Executive") has a tendency to lump us together. In the February 2001 Editors Note, Ms. Kirby wrote, "Suppliers and vendors seem to have long ago embraced the idea that unless they took an active role they would be certainly left behind. But from a print buyers perspective…" I really think she meant to say, "But from a print production professional’s perspective…" At least, I hope that is how she will state it next time!

A reminder to the people here at PrintPlanet.com, when registering, the job function print buyer is still our only choice. Time for a change!

A drafts person is not necessarily an architect, and a bookkeeper is not necessarily an accountant. To those of you looking to identify us, all we ask is that you realize a print buyer is not necessarily a Print Production Professional.

How do you feel? Does your job title clearly reflect your duties? I’d like to know.

The more we communicate, the better we will be at our careers.