Newsweek: the Way of the Buffalo*
I was sitting in a waiting room, and I saw on on the magazine rack this:
Now, I had no idea that Newsweek was going out of print. It's all going that way, I suppose. "Print is dead," (Dr. Egon Spengler was RIGHT)*. Well, maybe not dead...but on life support...
So, okay. Here's an article about Newsweek:
Linky
So Newsweek is going all digital and they're kinda sorta sad about it...but wait! We're TRENDSETTERS, so we're actually forging a NEW path...
Um, no.
You're cutting costs and going the path of least resistance, highest profitability... but at the cost of a calculated percentage of your readership.
Let's face it, some are not ready to make the digital jump (hard to pass those around in the waiting rooms, you know what I mean?) and many people simply LIKE a physical something to hold in their hands.
And that's okay. They'll go to Time or something else... Until it goes all digital, too.
The day of consumable media in print probably is nearly over.
Books? Yeah.
Specialty magazines will probably stay in print - stuff people read and keep (hobby magazines, for example - wood working, model building - stuff you can drop a 2x4 on or drip cyanoacrylate (CA - you know, superglue) on and not be destroying your $600 iPad or $300 Kindle...) And these are going digital too, I wonder about ALL digital (probably someday...but not too soon...and, heck, we STILL have vinyl around...but not too many 8-tracks, right? so who knows...)
But the stuff we read and throw away...or read in the waiting room... it's all going the way of the way of the buffalo...
Maybe print really is dead...
* An ok MXPX album but more importantly, the idea that you're fading away (maybe your fault, maybe not...)**
**Not sure how it could have been the buffalo's fault...but the direct reference to the band was that they were changing and it WAS their fault...so, um, you know...
Now, I had no idea that Newsweek was going out of print. It's all going that way, I suppose. "Print is dead," (Dr. Egon Spengler was RIGHT)*. Well, maybe not dead...but on life support...
So, okay. Here's an article about Newsweek:
Linky
So Newsweek is going all digital and they're kinda sorta sad about it...but wait! We're TRENDSETTERS, so we're actually forging a NEW path...
Um, no.
You're cutting costs and going the path of least resistance, highest profitability... but at the cost of a calculated percentage of your readership.
Let's face it, some are not ready to make the digital jump (hard to pass those around in the waiting rooms, you know what I mean?) and many people simply LIKE a physical something to hold in their hands.
And that's okay. They'll go to Time or something else... Until it goes all digital, too.
The day of consumable media in print probably is nearly over.
Books? Yeah.
Specialty magazines will probably stay in print - stuff people read and keep (hobby magazines, for example - wood working, model building - stuff you can drop a 2x4 on or drip cyanoacrylate (CA - you know, superglue) on and not be destroying your $600 iPad or $300 Kindle...) And these are going digital too, I wonder about ALL digital (probably someday...but not too soon...and, heck, we STILL have vinyl around...but not too many 8-tracks, right? so who knows...)
But the stuff we read and throw away...or read in the waiting room... it's all going the way of the way of the buffalo...
Maybe print really is dead...
* An ok MXPX album but more importantly, the idea that you're fading away (maybe your fault, maybe not...)**
**Not sure how it could have been the buffalo's fault...but the direct reference to the band was that they were changing and it WAS their fault...so, um, you know...
*Print is dead:
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