Print, Real People, and Shakespeare: A Content Strategy

Having just sent the November 2010 print issue of design mind to the printer, I think it’s an appropriate time to ask, “What the heck are we still doing in the print business?” It’s not easy building a magazine, I can tell you that. And it’s not cheap (though that depends on how frequently one publishes and what kind of creative resources one has access to; we go to press two times a year and have a company full of creatives with plenty of diverse points of view). So what’s the deal? Why do we bother, especially when the iPad and other tablets seem to be starting a new, lucrative, and broadly appealing chapter in magazine publishing?

The answer can be found, as usual, in Shakespeare.  I don’t mean that there’s a line from Hamlet that we can lazily interpret to impress the audience. I’m talking about the plays themselves — the performances. Will a video of actors on the live stage ever replace the experience of being in the theater? Not likely. I think most will agree that seeing a live play will always provide a different experience than watching it on a screen — and that it will always be a valued experience.

Music is another example. One could argue that the digitalization and sharing of music has made live performance, not record sales, digital or otherwise, the key to the vast majority of bands’ economic success. And everyone knows that you can’t get the thrill of the live drum solo or the extended feedback jam session from a recording.

The same could be said for human interaction. Much has been written lately about the difference between a social media avatar and a real person. Malcolm Gladwell, writing in The New Yorker about activism, says that the “strong ties” between real friends will affect actual change more than the “weak ties” between virtual selves who have never actually met. Even if activism is not a goal, friends and followers made virtually won’t ever completely stand in for the real thing — not for one’s love life, not for education (despite what scientist Sugata Mitra charmingly says), and not as a marketing or content strategy. As I’ve written before, social media as part of a communication plan will only work if the plan includes shaking real people’s hands at events (in tandem with original editorial content and PR).

Just as the live artifacts of an onstage or real-life experience will always provide a vital human value, it’s my belief that the printed page will too. In terms of content strategy, I believe the printed artifact is the jewel in the crown or the tip of the arrow. Because building a magazine through editing and graphic design is a specialized skill that few people know how to do well, it becomes a high-touch premium product. And in fact, that hold-in-your hand thing will only grow in value the more it is marginalized and the harder it is to find, even if you never actually hold the thing in your hand.

Through technology, one can see a future in which content and storytelling will be artifact free — computers blended with the human body, the Internet of things in which screens themselves will disappear, augmented reality information overlays — but when that happens, the artifacts themselves will become more valuable. It’s a time tested fact (ref. Collectors of classic cars, posters from the Bauhaus, and 2001 iPods).

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not naive enough to suggest that print should be the only vehicle a media company (or marketing team) should rely on. I don’t even think it should be the central element of a content strategy. On practically any weekend of the year, one can find a conference to attend on just about any subject that interests them and their business goals. Also, technology and mobile devices are evolving in too many exciting ways not to have fun with them and take advantage of their lucrative potential. (If you think magazine publishers and advertisers are excited about tablets, wait until the graphic design industry realizes that it too is getting a new lease on life).

But technology moves so fast that it becomes the great equalizer very quickly. By now, everyone is scrambling to figure out a social media strategy, and soon they will have one. What’s going to separate the wheat from the chaff? Or rather, what will separate the content from the noise?

Image by Iker Ayestaran

Sam is the director of publishing for frog where he oversees frog's global content, editorial, and digital publishing strategy. He is also the editor of design mind, frog's print and online media platform. Sam is the author of numerous books of non fiction and has written for Dwell, Metropolis, GOOD, and other magazines.