Discussion

By Peter Renton on Jul 09, 2008

Adam,

I read Steve Rubel's article and he makes some good points. But the death of print has been predicted many times in the last several decades. I like to read magazines, and there is no technology advanced enough yet that is an improvement on the feel, convenience and quality of a printed magazine. Having said that I think magazines need to get smarter.

Take TIME magazine for example. I have been a subscriber for many years but why do I still read the same magazine that everyone else reads. I should be able to select my topics and they can print the magazine just for me. The technology is here to do that, but magazines are still in the same 20th century mindset. The same reasoning applies to newspapers. Print will survive well into this century and beyond I believe, but it will need to get smarter, and use digital printing technology if it is going to thrive.

Regards, Peter Renton

By Eric on Jul 09, 2008

I have to agree on magazines. I will probably have a favorite few and don't see anything replacing that printed material for me. I also agree about getting smarter, but my expectations are far less. All I want is a version that does NOT have subscription card inserts for people who are already subscribed. That would be swell!

By mario assadi on Jul 10, 2008

I learned a good lesson with CTP, never thought it could happen so fast and smooth and it leveled the playing field , color management got resolved overnight all over the world, film vanished overnight. Even Kodak did not see this coming, definitly the speed of vanishing.
I learned: do not bet against technology, you will always lose.
Check this out, of all companies, Amazon has come up with a product called Kindle, read books on screen with a medium that looks just like paper and you do not need a computer, and at no cost has cellular capability to download newspapers and books, what a miracle from the company that started its business by selling books! And this is just begining...

By Michael "PDF boy" Jahn on Jul 10, 2008

Wow - I guess I have been reading magazines using Zinio or reviewing digital publications on Issuu.com for so long, I forgot you can actually read about news days, weeks even months after they were available on the web. Perhaps 20 years forward, when it is prohibited to print things like newspapers and magazines due to environmental issues - voted in by a generation who neither subscribes to magazines or newspapers today - we will then have finally be rid of this terribly inefficiently communication method. maybe by then, we may have actually solved color management issues, since the only way you publish color is to a digital display of some sort.

By David on Jul 10, 2008

I read this article and basically disagree. This is mainly hype (Jumping on the bandwagon- is that Steve Ballmers, print is dying wagon with a wheel flaring off??), with loosely gathered observations. High oil and a weak USD will make it (is making it for many already) tough for almost everyone- unless this economic trend reverses, printers included...
And the environment- yes, we have to all do our part, but placing print-media in the forefront of this battle is not fair nor justified (although using un-needed inks and solvents should be curtailed.) Heck, GreenPeace prints and uses Macs!
However to imply that this is the nail in prints coffin is stretching it, to say the least.

For sure newspaper circulation is down (but not dead) and that is expected in this ever more digital age, as we can see here:
http://www.graphicstart.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=89
Yet, here we read about online only titles GOING TO PRINT as well, to help get noticed above the sea of competition on the WWW:
The Demise of Print.com?
http://www.graphicstart.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=84

With email spam on the rise, direct mail is the most effective way to communicate with potential buyers/readers, not to mention packaging, signing and many other aspects of print (letterhead, business cards, yearly reports, books (on-demand or otherwise, etc) will likely be here for for years to come, if not centuries. Unless of course we have a major paradigm shift, in one form or another...

By Patrick Henry on Jul 10, 2008

The best analysis of the fate-of-magazines question that I've read in a long time is Alex Brown's "Master Manufacturer" column in the current issue of Publishing Executive:

http://www.pubexec.com/story/story.bsp?sid=110149&var=story

One thing we do know is that absolute predictions--"Everything is going to be such-and-such or so-and-so in X number of years"--never come true.

By Mark on Jul 10, 2008

I believe print will be around for years to come, but only because the infrastructure exists and it shrinks slowly as the demand for it reduces. It will not vanish overnight due to new technology because an extremely high percentage of all things printed are funded by advertising dollars. When a more cost effective replacement for this advertising channel exists, then there will be a significant impact, but somethings may never change, like packaging for example. When it comes to technology, it's very hard to predict. Look what's going on with our youth...they have the ability to speak over a wireless connection with extreme freedom, yet they choose to type text messages to each other. When you ask them why, the answer is very consistent, it's about multitasking, they are engaged, on average, in 3-6 simultaneous conversations at the same time. Todays generation rarely do one thing at a time. When you ask them about reading from hardcopy (printed media) they point out that it's not efficient enough for them. Every generation gets more efficient than the last. For example, picture-in-picture has been around for many years, but now we get advertising on TV in this method. You don't need to remian 100% focused on your program, only 75% and the advertiser competes for the other 25% in his little window. They are expecting you to multi-task. I predict print will survive only as long as it's efficiency remains acceptable to those who engage with it. When the newer generation(s)dominate the world population, only the necessary printed media (packaging,signs,lables, etc.) will survive. All the rest will slowly be displaced when the advertisers learn how to efficiently and effectivley replace the printed advertising channel.

By Todd Butler on Jul 11, 2008

Why is it assumed that there is only digital delivery (web) or ink on paper delivery of content? Why hasn't the printing industry developed innovative products that compete directly with the web?

I'm not talking about production innovations that reduce printing costs. I'm talking about increasing the functionality and value of the finished product which will positively impact consumer satisfaction with the physical delivery of content.

Why has the print industry not incorporated interactive multimedia into their paper products?

Magazines and catalogers should be delivering sights, sounds and video (craved by the U-Tube world) with their print products by incorporating CD, DVDs or other digital media into their packaging. I'm not talking about throwing a disc into the outer wrap of a magazine or catalog but redesigning the product into a print/digital hybrid that directly competes with on-line advertising by delivering greater functionality!

A magazine could print executive summaries of their articles with the complete article provided on disc. Not only would the complete article be on the disc but interviews and video clips of the subject matter would be integral to the commentary through links to on disc information. Page counts and form sizes could be reduced saving paper, postage and environmental costs.

Advertisers could pay a premium to be part of the print sections and/or have TV style commercials and product demonstrations on disc. These on-disc ads would of course be linked to specific landing pages on the advertiser's web sites.

With a hybrid catalog, there would no longer be cost constrained page counts. Catalogers could move from the flat mail stream to automated letters, substantially reducing costs while increasing the functionality and value of their piece to consumers.

Magazines and catalogs could be designed to be something people looked forward to receiving, carrying the latest movie trailers or tracks from a new musical group with links to purchase tickets or albums on line. One popular magazine could show us the car crash tests not just a b&w chart rating the vehicles.

Innovation in the print industry has not happened! To be viable in the future we need to deliver print products to consumers that compete directly with on-line advertising. Either the industry enhances the value and functionality of magazines and catalogs, or their future will be as bright as that of newspapers.

Todd Butler
www.eKEY(R)Technologies.com

By David on Jul 14, 2008

You bring up some excellent points Todd. Here is one application that I think would be great- especially if you could get the iPhone capable of scanning these bar-codes or images in... (Articles or text in print pieces that have a unique bar-code or image, that when scanned, take you to the desired web-page.)

"QR Codes: Share Text and Web Addresses inside Images"
13-07-2008
http://graphicstart.com/item.php?itemid=768688

By dean collins on Jul 15, 2008

You can get a qr code reader on the iphone;

there is a video of it here http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/qr-codes-in-smh.html from Quickmark

Cheers,
Dean

By Patrick Scaglia on Jul 15, 2008

New technologies tend to create new markets, not just replace existing ones. I agree with one of the comments: magazines (and other publications) have to get into the 21st Century: personalized, on demand, linked to the web media, all things digital print can offer. As an example, check this out: www.magcloud.com . I don't know if it is the future of publishing, but it's a good sample of it. Most of the magazines offered here would not exist without this service. In other words, it's all "new" print.

Patrick Scaglia
CTO, Imaging and Printing Group, HP