As you all know, the world is in the midst of a wholesale conversion from print to online. Just as once it seemed inconceivable that digital would replace film, it seemed inconceivable that online would replace print. Yet, apart from the ubiquitous presence of the Web, prominent newspapers are failing and closing, magazines have fewer and fewer pages, and we now increasingly pay fees for the privilege of getting and paying our bills in print. Amazon reported that, for the first time, ebooks are outselling hardcovers, and the company believes that ebooks will also soon pass paperback sales.
Amidst this wholesale conversion to digital, a well-known, albeit not uncontroversial, publisher announced his continuing faith in print, bringing up arguments that I had not considered before.
In essence, he said that magazines are like homes, providing a sense of continuity, structure and belonging in a world of digital overload and random white noise. A print magazine, he said, is predictable, familiar, and comfortable. Readers view it as an old friend with whom you sit down and exchange the same old pleasantries, always learning something new, but always knowing what to expect.
With a magazine, you know the thrust and content and position of the mag, you know the columns, the writers, the features and the sections, and you know where to look for them. There's anticipation, joy, respect, and just the sheer comfort of knowing what to expect.
To be honest, even though I used to be a print publisher, I never thought of magazines that way. I am online almost always. I work online, I entertain myself online, I truly cannot imagine not having online access. I get great enjoyment from researching a topic instantly, or spending hours digging deep; it would never occur to me to use something as ancient as an encyclopedia or textbook for that.
Yet, I have a good dozen print magazine subscriptions (Time, Business Week, four car mags, National Geographic, several computer and photography mags, a cat mag, etc.). Though those mags also have comprehensive websites, I hardly ever go to them, and I wondered why. Interestingly, I found that I didn't like the sites because they felt disjointed, overrun by commercial pop-ups, and just generally not as satisfying and predictable as the print mags. I also never go to the website of my local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, though I subscribed to the print version for many years. Yet, I use the iPad version of USA Today and a couple of other news media apps every day. And I have subscribed to some electronic multi-media PDF versions of magazines on Zinio.
I don't think anyone exactly knows where all this is headed. There's ample precedence of new media and technologies duking it out and eventually either replacing each other or settling into complementary roles.
But I do think that the comfort/familiarity aspect brought up by that publisher is a very astute observation. In an increasingly global, anonymous, transient world, perhaps we do seek structure and comfort and some sort of homes.
Amidst this wholesale conversion to digital, a well-known, albeit not uncontroversial, publisher announced his continuing faith in print, bringing up arguments that I had not considered before.
In essence, he said that magazines are like homes, providing a sense of continuity, structure and belonging in a world of digital overload and random white noise. A print magazine, he said, is predictable, familiar, and comfortable. Readers view it as an old friend with whom you sit down and exchange the same old pleasantries, always learning something new, but always knowing what to expect.
With a magazine, you know the thrust and content and position of the mag, you know the columns, the writers, the features and the sections, and you know where to look for them. There's anticipation, joy, respect, and just the sheer comfort of knowing what to expect.
To be honest, even though I used to be a print publisher, I never thought of magazines that way. I am online almost always. I work online, I entertain myself online, I truly cannot imagine not having online access. I get great enjoyment from researching a topic instantly, or spending hours digging deep; it would never occur to me to use something as ancient as an encyclopedia or textbook for that.
Yet, I have a good dozen print magazine subscriptions (Time, Business Week, four car mags, National Geographic, several computer and photography mags, a cat mag, etc.). Though those mags also have comprehensive websites, I hardly ever go to them, and I wondered why. Interestingly, I found that I didn't like the sites because they felt disjointed, overrun by commercial pop-ups, and just generally not as satisfying and predictable as the print mags. I also never go to the website of my local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, though I subscribed to the print version for many years. Yet, I use the iPad version of USA Today and a couple of other news media apps every day. And I have subscribed to some electronic multi-media PDF versions of magazines on Zinio.
I don't think anyone exactly knows where all this is headed. There's ample precedence of new media and technologies duking it out and eventually either replacing each other or settling into complementary roles.
But I do think that the comfort/familiarity aspect brought up by that publisher is a very astute observation. In an increasingly global, anonymous, transient world, perhaps we do seek structure and comfort and some sort of homes.
