There is always a constant stream of readings/blog posts/research I come across debating the assertion that print media is on its way to a certain death. You can find a convincing argument from each side of the online vs print media argument, although it is always good to look at the interests of the publisher behind the content before taking it as fact.
In my opinion, there will always be a place for both, it is the weightings and dominance in the market of each that is the grey area. There will be an inevitable shift to digital as a preference as todays Gen Y & Z (and those to follow) age and become the baby boomers of today and target customer$. This digital preference is for real-time immediacy of information that is now expected and the norm, but these demographics have grown up much more environmentally aware also. In saying this though, there will always be those with a need or passion for some things printed regardless of age. For many nothing beats the experience of a great book or a fresh copy of your favourite magazine. The podcast below captures some of these ideas.
First see here for some extracts from a debate between a online editor (Buzzmachine.com) and print editor (National Geographic):

  • Online
    1. “That’s the problem with print: It is far too one-way for this two-way world.”
    2. “Print is not dead. Print is where words go to die.”
    3. “In our post-scarcity world, distribution is not king and neither is content. Conversation is the kingdom, and trust is king. Perhaps your value is not just editors or articles but the community that gathers around them.”
  • Print
    1. “There is tremendous value in passionate, knowledgeable, talented editors who can assign stories and photographs with budgets to do them better and more authoritatively than any individual can.”
    2. “Print is the perfect introduction to an informed debate and to the deep resources of the web.”
    3. “The web is the friend of print, not its killer.”
  • In Agreement

    The winning media companies will be the most adaptable, not the biggest or the one with the most content. The winners will be aggregating audiences in interesting ways. Bottoms up, not Top down.”    Here is a great podcast from Knowledge@ Wharton (Mar 19, 2008): ‘Dead tree Medium’ no longer: For many marketers print outperforms digital. “People like paper, and paper works”.
    Listen to podcast here

As always, if you want a concrete answer (for now anyway) pays to look for some cold, hard objective metrics. See Techbrief link, “Print Media vs Online Media. Who will win?”

Scott Karp from Publish2 Blog is a thought leader within this realm. Essential read is this post here “The New Media consolidation”