At the outset, advances in electronic publishing proved to be a boon to print publishers. Computerized typesetting and similar developments permitted us to deliver a more attractive product on a more timely basis, and with a savings in labor costs. However, the same technological initiative from which we first profited now appears less friendly, if not ominous. Perhaps it was inevitable: our own technological ingenuity has finally permitted the advent of a form of mass communications -- videotex -- which may mean an end to print communication modes. Indeed, videotex has made several of our colleagues yearn for a return to the days of the quill pen. Reactions to videotex range from doomsayers who prophecy the transformation of 'the reading habit' into 'the viewing habit' to those who choose to ignore its ramifications altogether. The purpose of this presentation is a search for a middle ground: to examine to what extent we may expect videotex to affect print media, particularly newspaper publishing; and to offer alternatives available to the print publisher.
It is interesting to note that computerized information retrieval is both the source of the problem and its solution. By this I mean that the availability of vast quantities of information is made possible by the databanks while, in turn, methods of on- line retrieval and other sophisticated computer technologies provide the means to organize the data in a systematic fashion, thus providing for marketing management not only information, but information systems. I propose to demonstrate this thesis by depicting a day in market research in September, 1989 a decade after the XXXII Congress. In the course of this description, the impact of several new on-line technologies which constitute the backbone of marketing management information systems will be noted â selective dissemination of information (SDI), point-of-sale terminals, cable television feedback, automated reports, and conference modelling.
The thesis of this paper is that a new technology exists and that within the next generation, it will drastically alter the jobs of market researchers and the methods by which decisions are made. First, we will look at decision making, its past, its present, and its future new requirements. Secondly, we will discuss nine new technologies. Finally, we will put decision making and these new technologies together to see what the combination suggests for the future.