Print Isn't Going to Die, Just Change
Posted by junger | May 14th, 2008
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I hate when people say the Internet is going to completely replace deadtree media. It's completely ridiculous.
Printed media is not going to die, it's just going through a major shift in content. Obviously, newspapers are not real-time. Magazines are not real-time. The Internet is.
So what should a print publication do to survive? Embrace that it isn't real-time.
The latest conversation on this comes with the launch of Dispatches, a quarterly magazine based on analysis of events, not news. (Yes, they do have a Web site.)
Why this is newsworthy I don't know. But for some reason, it gets people asking: is print dead?
Mashable, for example, gets it completely wrong.
The printed magazine, content-wise, is just like a web page taken offline: nothing more, nothing less. Is there any hope for the print, then?
First off, people do not read online. Jakob Nielsen has been saying this for 11 years.
People do read offline. When you have paper in your hand, it's a lot easier to focus on one thing. Reading offline is a different experience. You're sitting on the sofa, feet up, relaxed and a drink in hand. You don't sit at your computer desk like that, do you?
Content presentation matters. Big time. Because of that, certain content fares better online while other is better in print. So why bother comparing the two? It's like putting a square peg in a round hole. It doesn't work.
The commenters in TechDirt's coverage of the story mostly seem to be missing the point. It's not about competing with the Internet; it's about offering content in-tune with the delivery and format of the publication.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of noise in this discussion: blogs, balance and bias all get thrown into the mix. Forget about that — it's a different topic.
It's not about the competition; it's about maximizing the user experience. And everytime you think of your users first, you win.
