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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”

“It appears the fundamental issue for the future of journalism is not audiences splintering away to citizen media, corporate PR and other non-news venues. In many ways the audience for news—and for what traditional newsrooms produce—appears to be growing. Nor are journalists failing to adapt. There are more signs in 2008 than ever that news people embrace the new technology and want to innovate.

“The problem, it is increasingly clear, is a broken economic model—the decoupling of advertising and news. Advertisers are not migrating to news websites with audiences, and online, news sites are already falling financially behind other kinds of web destinations.”

Will cover more of the findings and insights later, in the meanwhile:

Read about Major Trends HereÂ

Read Full Report Here

A few weeks ago I wrote a post linking to Scott Karp’s Publishing 2.0 Blog where he talked about Reinventing journalism - links as news, links as reporting

I just came across this article “Opening Bell: The economy’s toxic blend” in the Columbia Journalism review today, which is a stunning example of this in action. While not a warm, fuzzy topic, it is an example of bringing depth and breadth to a story and creating a controlled experience for the reader, with exit points to further educate yourself right along the way. This article can take 5 mins or 50 mins to read, you can learn 5 things or 50, its up to you - this is journalism reinvented.

The Project for Excellence will release the State of the News Media 2008 report on Monday, March 17. The report examines the health and status of journalism in America, and it includes major industry trends, specific analysis of the eight main media sectors, and the following additional features such as:

• A Year in the News, a new comprehensive content analysis of 70,000 stories from 48 news outlets in five different kinds of media.
• A survey of a cross-section of journalists that reveals how they feel about the future of the profession
• The view of the advertising industry from Madison Avenue
• A content analysis study of 64 citizen media sites
• Links to key industry statistics

Check out last year’s at this link:
http://www.lucindigo.com/2007/03/21/2007/