Death of a (Magazine) Salesman

A few days ago I had the opportunity to read Josh Norem’s excellent write-up describing the end of tech magazines in print. Around the same time, I had a number of conversations about our move to print, and each time the same topic popped up: why print a magazine you’ve been distributing electronically for two years? Why not just ship a disc, or why ship anything at all?

In the era of electronic publishing, these questions seem both valid and poignant. When the NY Times editor doesn’t even know if they will be in print in five years, it seems like the perfect time to ditch the trees and embrace the downloads. Are we making the right choice by offering our readership a print subscription, or are we needlessly wasting our time and resources on a terminal patient? Let me tell you what I think, then we’ll open it up for your thoughts.

First let’s dump cold logic and plug in sloppy emotion. Print feels good. You can pick it up in your hand, feel the matte cover under your fingers and flip to a random page and start reading. Now I won’t wager against the future of e-paper. I think most of us see the march of progress digitizing much of our daily esistance in 50 years, but until an e-reader can feel good to the touch, paper will continue to have a place at the newsstand.

Emotions aside, the print magazine is still king of convenience. Sure, you can whip out your iPhone and pull the up-to-the minute whatever from your favorite site. In the near future you’ll be able to do that anywhere, be it on a plane or in a doctor’s office. What technology won’t allow you to do, however, is roll up your fancy website and use it to pummel someone. Even the 5th gen iPhone, with it’s rollable paper-thin screen, costs too much to be used as a bludgeon. A 2 dollar magazine will happily whack away.

People like to joke that you can’t comfortably take your laptop into the bathroom with you, but I submit that this is no joke. Pardon my potty mouth, but I can’t poop without a good read. A magazine fills this requirement quite nicely, and I’ll generally read every page in about a week. Sometimes less, if someone slips me some fiber.

There are a number of more serious reasons that we’ve decided to distrubute a print edition. The most important reason is that our readership has demanded a print version since our inception, and it’s our job to supply that demand. Will the print version be phased out in the future? Undoubtably, but not until something replaces it that feels just as good.

The arguments swing both ways, and good points can be found in droves on both sides. We welcome your critism and feedback.