I consider myself fortunate to have been part of the first generation to really grow up learning on computers. When it was still cool to collect Encyclopaedia Brittanica, because Wikipedia wasn't a thing yet. I can remember when my deluxe Windows 95 edition of "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" came with an almanac so that I could research all the clues I found while on the case.
The internet has changed the way we interact with information, and most major publications have had to adapt to the increase in online readership, putting some or all of their content available online behind a subscription wall. A subscription to the Indy Star costs less than $15 a month for the daily paper and all-access online, but for $20 a year you can skip the print edition and still access all their digital content.
But before you make assumptions about the future of all news and information being delivered digitally, there's still a strong market for print publications - and digital content creators are beginning to take notice. For example, a pair of former Newsweek staffers in London have launched a free bi-monthly print publication called
"Swipe". Geared towards millenials, Swipe has partnered with over 80 digital publications to print a collection of articles from a wide variety of web sources. The magazine released its first edition in May.
In 2014, CNET, one of the leading online tech review and news sources, launched a quarterly print magazine, aimed at the everyday consumer. According to
an article on Publishing Executive,
"The goal of the launch, said CNET co-editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo...was to deliver CNET content on a platform readers wanted. "We're platform agnostic. It's all about the reader and how they want to consume content,"
In this case, CNET realized there was still an audience that would benefit from their content, which had previously been exclusively online, in a printed publication. It was, according to Guglielmo, an attempt to bring the "personal" back to technology, and give consumers a fresh perspective on tech insights. It was an interesting move for a tech company that began in television.
We approach the storytelling in the quarterly magazine very differently than we do online. Everything that we write for the magazine is original. It's not something that we've taken online and repurposed, then put in the magazine; When you're writing for that cadence, you're approaching storytelling in a very different way than you are when you're reacting to daily news. . .
With every magazine we're trying to connect the online and print well to our advantage. If we can tell a story in a certain way online and then do it differently and have connections to the print, and vice versa, that's great."
It's interesting to think that as we push further and further into digital content and technology, there will always be a strong audience for print. After all, as Swipe Editor Barney Guiton says in his
interview with Digiday,
"The great thing is we take it to them in the physical form, and you don't have ad blockers in print."
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