A few weeks ago, folks representing some of the largest and most interesting media, advertising and marketing companies gathered at a couple of interactive media conferences in New York City.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau held it’s annual MIXX conference, and MediaPost Communications ran its OMMA Global event during the same two days in late September. Even though some the nation’s largest advertisers, advertising companies and Internet companies are represented at gatherings like these, newspaper folks seem to shy away.

While I was online director for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, I was lucky enough to attend at OMMA conference, and I also made it to an ad:tech conference, another popular gathering for those who work and innovate in interactive media. Those two conferences were great, and opened my eyes in a few ways about what was happening in the wide world of interactive media — beyond newspapers.

At the time, and I’m afraid still to a large extent, newspapers companies saw themselves as a universe separate from online. Oh, sure, they dabbled in the online stuff, but they were newspaper companies, not interactive media companies.

Most newspapers now have Web sites, and most of the them have some form of advertising. The Interactive Advertising Bureau is the leading organization for online advertising standards and practices. No doubt it will play a key role in the coming debate over behavioral targeting. And yet, very few newspaper companies are members of the IAB. A look through its membership uncovered four — Cox Newspapers Inc., New York Times Digital, Wall Street Journal Digital Network and Washington Post Digital. The Newspaper Association of America is an associate member.

Only Hearst , the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times were listed among attendees at OMMA Global last year.

Is it any wonder that the interactive world is leaving newspaper companies in the dust? To play and compete in the interactive world — which is the dominant medium for information — a business needs to know the players, know the innovators and the advertisers who love interactive.

The rules and tools of the interactive game are all being discussed at these conferences and in a magnitude the NAA can’t possibly provide at its annual gatherings.

The newspaper industry’s leaders can’t just “talk amongst themselves” to figure out how to compete in the interactive world. They need to dive into it, and drag their old world along for the swim.