I've been chatting with creative decision makers and people who run digital media agencies about the work they do and their perspective about their clients' thinking. This has led to some very interesting conversations. It's clear they consider digital media as their primary focus. I can't say they're always happy about it, just that it's their platform from which everything else springs. They're just as unhappy as John Wanamaker was when he said he didn't know which half of his ad budget was wasted. The most important idea is that their thinking on behalf of their clients communication strategy does not involve print.

I've always wondered about this. Communications technology and tastes are dynamic. When you ask them about how communications are strategized and planned, the Internet, now with us parts of three decades, is central to everything that they do. That's not a surprise. Its march was relentless. It's not over. (As I used to remind audiences: “I write about printing... on the Internet... think about that.”)

Part of these personal discussions involves getting to know each other with an exchange of business experiences and our various mutual acquaintances. The reaction I get when I say I'm from the printing industry has been curious. The younger the executives is the more likely they are to say something like “oh” and seem puzzled about it. Sometimes it's like they never thought of printing as being an industry. Sometimes it seems I'm the first one they've met. That's scary. When I talk to printers they often don't know these people, and sadly, not these agencies. They seem intent on being unknown. Creepy.