In Defense of Print

Yesterday – the day after an historic election – there was a run on the newspaper industry. People were buying hundreds of copies at a time of their local daily. When newsstands in New York and Washington sold out, crowds were said to have gathered at the Times and Post headquarters looking for copies announcing the new Obama presidency. There were also reports of pilfering at coin operated newspaper machines. Some people bought copies and then immediately sold them on EBay for a profit – a single copy of yesterday’s New York Times is said to have sold for almost $250 on the online auction site.

Newspapers responded in kind by increasing their print runs. USA Today printed an extra 500,000 copies to up their normal run to 2.5 million. The LA Times upped theirs by 100K and the Post ran 350,000 copies (and then sold them for $1.50, triple the normal weekday price).

What a day for print. Which brings me to my question. If print is dead – a rumor that has been going around for quite a few years now – why are so many people still interested in it?

It would be folly to say print is relevant because of a single day of big sales. To me it’s more of a testament to the quality, longevity, and emotion that’s still attached to print. As Julia Wallace, editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the newspaper's online editorial operations, said in today’s LA Times “people want something to keep and to remember” about yesterday’s history. True, you can keep a PDF on your computer or bookmark an article to remember later. But nothing compares to the long term impact of something you can hold in your hands.

The numbers back this up. Folio magazine released a study on October 28 that looks at the media habits of business men and women (“the elite business” is how they put it), and they found that 88% of the people they surveyed read the latest issue of any print media compared to 59% who watched cable news within the previous day and 51% who watched broadband video on a computer. Only 32% say they read blogs, 18% downloaded a video podcast, and a mere 6% contributed to a blog.

Here, ironically, is the link: www.foliomag.com/2008/business-elite-still-love-print

It’s important to distinguish between news and print. While a one day news event like the presidential election can drive newspaper sales, the news isn’t the underlying reason people bought newspapers. People wanted a keepsake. In fact, while it’s natural to connect the idea of news to print, it’s clear that print can no longer be in the news business. There’s just no way print can compete with the speed of reporting, no matter how early the guy on your local paper route gets up. Clearly, this is a problem for print (especially newspapers), but it’s not a new one. That’s why we’ve seen a rise in OpEd, news analysis, and trend stories – what the old newsmen call “back stories.” This is also why we’ve seen the rise of personality-driven books and memoirs in the book industry (and why memoirs by 20 and 30-year olds manage to make the bestseller lists – see Jonathan Safran Foer and Dave Eggers). This is proprietary news, so to speak. It’s news no one else can know. Secrets sell.

By the way, the book industry, in general, is as healthy as it’s ever been. The Association of American Publishers reports that book sales have grown by 2.5% every year since 2002. In 2007, it was a $25 billion dollar industry in the United States (up 3.6% from 2006).

So print is not dead; it’s just becoming more targeted. Indeed, it’s become more customized (see design mind - designmind.frogdesign.com). We’re seeing the hyper-targeting of the magazine industry with more rags being published for fringe audiences, which is a trend commensurate with the boutique-ing or Long Tail-ing of the business world.

The collapse of advertising support is often mentioned as a reason for the downfall of print, but this niche-ing of the magazine industry – while not good for the big players – may actually be good for advertising. It allows advertisers to grab more attentive audiences and it allows more latitude in their strategy. In other words, they can be more effective with their money by spending less in more places. 

Lastly, for those of us in the marketing business, a print magazine is a sharp piece of collateral. It’s surprising, it’s personal, and it’s authoritative. In an economic downturn like the one we’re in now, a print magazine is good marketing strategy for the simple reason that when times are tough, businesses firm up long term relationships with their clients, and no one does long term better than print.

There’s no question that print is and will always be part of the mix. The question now becomes, how can print be used?