The death of print: proceed with caution on funeral plans.

I remember vividly when my mother allowed me to subscribe to my very first magazine:  Teen.  I had been begging her for about two years, but she insisted that until I was thirteen, I was not an appropriate audience.  Fast-forward through junior high and high school – Teen, Seventeen, Sassy, Jane – all landed in my mailbox monthly.  Fast-forward through college – Glamour, Cosmo, Marie Claire, Vogue – and my love of reading magazines started developing into a passion for creating magazine content.  In May of 2005, I finished my degree in southern California and two weeks later was on a plane to New York because that was where publishing dreams came true.

I eventually landed in the production department of Allure magazine and could not have been happier.  I was doing what I set out to do – making magazines a reality for consumers like myself.  A few years in though, as magazines seemed to fold around me almost daily, a scary reality set in: print (as I knew and loved it) was dying.  And then in the spring of 2010, a beacon of hope from Silicon Valley: the iPad.  Soon after the launch news, the entire staff was invited to a meeting with Condé Nast’s CEO.  If you were to do a quick scan of the floor seconds after the invite was sent, you’d have seen Gawker.com on every computer screen – that’s where we in the biz got our news first – and everyone wanted to know if we were going to get the dreaded “Well, Allure’s had a good run, but it’s time we said goodbye…” 

Later that week, I was in the theater at 4 Times Square intently listening to Chuck Townsend as he explained the innovation that was taking place around us.  He showed us a video of what was happening a few floors up at Wired, and explained the possibilities of digital formatting for the publishing industry. 

I left that meeting with a renewed love for magazines, but wondered how it would affect the actual medium of print.  The questions I had then are still unanswered today.  How do digital magazines work – are they simply downloadable pdfs or to what degree can consumers feel involved?  Who creates the pages and features?  How does the digitization of print affect the arts of journalism and photography?  What potential is there for interactivity, not only with publishing content, but also with products and services through advertising?  Does print really have to die to make way for digital, or can the two co-exist?  I recently saw this ad from Belgium insurance company AXA. 

Neat, right?  It was actually a little hard for me to leave my job to attend graduate school during what I thought was an interesting time for the industry.  But I’m excited to explore my ideas in an academic environment and know that in a very short time I’ll be back in the workforce, only better equipped to bring those ideas to publishing (or wherever else my career takes me).  In reading the article “Print is Dead, Long Live Print: Digital Magazines Have Publishers in a Spin” (Kit Eaton, FastCompany.com, March 2010), something posted in the comments section struck me the most.  The article was about the publishing industry’s “Power of Print” campaign, and it’s odd timing given the digital revolution.  The commenter argues that “… until the last baby boomer dies, there will be an audience for good old fashioned print” (Loraine Antrim).

 Looking at the topic from a customer insights perspective, I think one of my struggles will be in defining my target persona.  I know for a fact there are plenty of people out there (myself included) who like the feel of a glossy page and aren’t ready for a 2lb electronic replacement.  How do I move forward and innovate, without alienating those who have been loyal for years?  How do I make something available and affordable to the masses?  On a business-to-business level, how do I pitch the idea of digital advertising to brands that are used to printed pages?  As far as research, I know I will need to really get in touch with consumers and dissect their relationship with publications – observations, depth interviews, surveys.  I would also like to get in touch with some of my contacts in the industry and find out what they are currently doing and what they would like to be doing to revolutionize the way we read.   

Another article, “How the Magazine Industry Can Save Itself” (Ritik Dholakia, Fastcodesign.com, September 2010) explains some of the potentials and cautions of the changing industry.  The author explains many ways to approach adding new value through content by innovating not from a publishing perspective but from that of a curator, and he explains that depth and frequency of engagement rather than volume of impressions should be measures of success.

            In summary, I’ve been an avid consumer of and contributor to the publishing industry for almost two decades now.  There was a time not too long ago when I was fearful my treasured magazines would cease to exist all together.  I realize now they actually probably will cease to exist as I knew them growing up, but that change is nothing to be fearful of.  Equipped with the tools of customer insights, I can be excited about the future of both the consumption and creation of magazines.