Some very large magazine publishers pooled their money recently to launch their new campaign, “The Power of Print.” Publishers of such notables as the Rolling Stone, US Weekly, More, Wired, Smart Money, People, to name a few, paid for the campaign.
The campaign was extremely well executed from all points including copy, design, art direction and impact. The question that this campaign naturally raises is will it move the market toward reading print or has that market already moved to some place else?
Magazines and newspapers and the difficulties they face have been written about and reported for the past 10 years in this publication and many others. The industry changes are apparent and obvious and don’t bear repeating. What isn’t so obvious and what is continuously debated by the top executives at publishing houses is what is print’s natural transition? Can a print media be retained while promoting a digital solution as well? Will people continue to read their newspapers and magazines in printed form or can they appear in a digital form and make money? On and on the debate rages. What is becoming a bit more clear is if magazines only provide a printed form and do not figure out how to monetize their digital counter-parts they may not have money for such an elaborate campaign the next time.