Reply to Kevin’s Blog Entry

Read Kevin’s entry here.

Have you read it? Alright, come on back.

Hi, do you like it better over in Palmer’s World? Yes, I thought so. Pull up a chair…heck pass me a beer while you’re at it. Thanks. *pshhht*

Printed media will eventually have a significant drop. Is this a bad thing? Well…it would use a lot less trees, that’s a fer sure.

Let’s look at the state of affairs right now in the world of publishing:
Most printed media has a corresponding website. Some of them have the full articles out there to read (vicemag.com, ottawasun.ca), some give you a taste and ask you to subcribe to their website to read the entire thing (essentially the same price…if not lower(? haven’t done any research on this) than a regular newspaper subscription).

I cancelled my subscriptions to a few magazines over the years for the sole fact that I can read the same stuff on the Internet. Let’s take Maxim…I cancelled it because I thought if I wanted something funny to read in the land of men, I could always just check out askmen.com. Other than that, what is the magazine good for? Sure, it’s nice to have something to read in the backyard, or on the can, but other than that, all the information within the pages are available on the Internet somewhere.

So, in my eyes, the only times I ever buy a magazine are:

1. When I’m stuck somewhere and have nothing to read.
2. When I do have that urge to have something in my hands to read rather than sitting in front of a computer screen. I have a feeling that a lot of people fall into this category still, which is fine.
3. If they offer something DIFFERENT than what is on the Internet.

Point 3 brings up the surefire way for print media to still give us something we want. In terms of news-based magazines and papers, ain’t going to happen. News is news. It will be released on the Internet instantly. In my eyes, the printed news form is like that Kraft Dinner that you’ve kept in the fridge for a week but you can’t bring yourself to eat it again.

But for the magazines/papers that focus on non-news stories, the sky is the limit. Let’s take our ever faithful Star Wars Magazine. With my subscription to the magazine, it offers me articles/short stories/whatever that will not be put onto the Internet. (!point: Let’s not get into the debate of how somewhere out there I could probably find a scanned copy in the recesses of the Internet world.). They entice me to get the magazine so I can get the scoop on stuff.

Magazines should move towards this format. Offer up different things than what they release on their official websites. On the Sports Illustrated website, you could have a great interview with Michael Jordan but if you pick up the SI magazine, you get the candid “What was your favourite movie?” talk. Alright, I’m really stretching here, but you get my drift.

For the printed media to survive (read: evolve) they have to offer something different than what is available in other forms. So far, newspaper does this in comparison with television because a news program cannot cover every article written inside the newspaper (especially obituaries. Who wants to see a list of that on the 6 O’Clock News?). But the Internet is a different story.

So, this is how I see the future unfolding:

Present:
Printed media will still be king. It’s still mainly used, most likely due to the older generation stuck on newspapers and televisions. I would like to see the numbers in terms of how much printed media has dropped/increased since 1995 (the birth of the Internet as we all know it.)

Future, let’s say 50 years:
You’re now looking at a generation who are tech savvy. Who know where to find their information on the Internet.
I see a very low number of printed newspapers (or if they ever come up with the electronic newspaper…heck yeah!) being replaced by Internet articles, handheld devices, etc. The printed form will never die. I don’t think it should die. In terms of short articles, I am fine reading it on a screen…but a book? I don’t know. I would have to try one out to see if I didn’t mind it. I’ve seen e-books being read on the bus and they don’t really appeal to me.
Anyhow, a definite decline in magazines in the next 50 years unless they start offering up different information.

Advice to Masses Who Read Palmer’s World: Take a look at the magazines you buy. Now, see what content is in them and see if you can find the same content on the Internet. I may have just saved you a couple of bucks if you don’t mind reading it on the Internet. For example: Gossip columns. Why buy them off the news stand? They’re already old news in terms of the Internet. Check out thesuperficial.com for your up to date celeb news. (plus I love the sarcasm).