there will never be an end to print

when the photograph came to town i’m sure there were people running around saying that the days of paint were numbered. then digital photography was going to wipe out film. the same was probably said about the pen when the typewriter came along. none of these things have come to pass. photographers are still using film, albeit far less of them, people are still painting, and pens still exist, although i haven’t seen a typewriter in a while.

you see where i’m coming from is…

my father is a newspaper man, i’m a p.r flack, who gets to talk to alot of editors over the course of a working week. sometimes it’s just day to day work stuff, but other times we get to catch up and just chew the fat about where the media business is headed. we talk about where the whole “print thing” is headed and there seems to be a fairly good consensus that print’s never going away. at least not anytime soon.

times they are a changing

the publishing industry is going through a big shakeup. that’s not a bad thing. some publishers are going bust, but others are adapting. others are working how online and print are going to work lockstep.

a conversation with an editor

i had the chance to spend some time with the editor of one of australia’s top tech pubs and he spoke very frankly about how his publication took a massive hit. what it made him do was cut out all of the fat in the business, almost halved his staff and had to look at smarter ways of doing things. he then had to work out who was still buying his magazine and why, and then gave them more of it. he’s arrested the downward fall in sales, and the coming quarter he thinks he’ll have an upward trend again.

it’s horses for courses

i think malcolm gladwell did a good job at ted when he tells the story of spaghetti sauce. watch it, but the gist of what he says is that because we’re all different, there is no one perfect flavour for everyone. some people plain despise reading from a screen. they like to have a paper in front of them and when you talk to some people, they describe reading from a page as an engagement of all the senses. the feel of the paper, the sound it makes, the smell of the ink, the sun on them as they read an in-depth feature about darfur or the latest production of rent on broadway.

online changes the media mix

people like to consume news online. why? because it’s the fastest and most efficient way of consuming that product. it’s like drinking water. water is water. you drink it because you have to and then it’s over. when i sit down with the a magazine on a saturday with a coffee and bacon and eggs, i want features and i want them in print.  i want to scribble on the page, i want to take as long as i need to and not worry about battery life or hotspots or any tech. i just want to slowly digest 10,000 words and enjoy it. it’s my equivalent of a scotch or a nice red wine. it is a slow process to enjoy.

it’s about the best medium for the message

or the best tool for the job if you’re old school. it will always be this way. news by print is not the best tool for the job anymore. but when people sit down with a novel, or a features mag, what need are they fulfilling and does sitting in front of a pc best fulfil that need?

“the end is not nigh!” is not as sensational

of course. the headline is not as great, but i for one am glad that online has come into its own, but give me a copy of the good weekend and a double macchiatto.