End of Print-Centric Buyers —Dana

"The next 10 years will feature vast changes and evolution of communication techniques and protocol, which will be challenging to keep up with. But for those who embrace this and expand their knowledge and skill base, it is likely going to be a very exciting time!"

For some buying pros, the evolution has been in the works for a long time. Take Mike Santasiero, offshore production manager for Thomasnet.com at Thomas Publishing. "In children's book production, this evolution started 10 years ago. I had to learn the production processes for plush toys, printing on various substrates, different methods of plastic production, sound chips, lenticulars, packaging, and the list goes on. We also had to learn to process our scans so that they can be usable when either shrinking the trim or blowing it up by a certain percentage—since gaining access to original art years later can be dicey sometimes.