Lexington, Kentucky, USA - April 16, 2001 - WhatTheyThink.com, the leading Internet community serving the graphic arts industry, has just completed a study of print buyers in the United States. The study focused on whether print buyers cared if printers outsourced some of their jobs to a third party and if they even know. The survey was conducted with 197 print buyers from a variety of industry segments. The questions asked: Does your primary print vendor use other third party companies to produce some of your items? Some print vendors use other companies to help produce jobs when they do not have the capability to do it themselves. Which best describes your view? Almost half of buyers (47%) said they were aware that their printer did not produce all their work. Only 16 percent of buyers said they did not know and 37 percent said their printer did not job out any of their jobs. When asked their thoughts on a print vendor outsourcing their job, 43 percent said as long as the job was done right, they did not care. 37 percent of buyers said they wanted to know so they could evaluate other options and 18 percent said they did not care, but would like to know. (2 percent had no opinion) Randy Davidson, WhatTheyThink.com CEO, explained his view of the data. “Combined, it was interesting to see that 61% of buyers really did not care if their vendor jobbed out a printing order to another printer. Most printers have relationship with other printers in case of emergencies or simply overflow reasons. The 37% who would like to know so they could evaluate another alternative shows the awareness print buyers have about the process. More buyers today know the cost savings and quality enhancements of matching their project with the right equipment and vendor.”