In the space of a day, I have leapt across the yawning gulf
between online and offline (or, somewhat less poetically, I changed jobs and moved from
one side of the office to the other). Those same scaremongers who predict print
will crumble against the unstoppable juggernaut that is the internet might also
say my recent move from the dotcom boom newsdesk of printweek.com, where I was
production editor, to my new role as deputy editor on Printing World, steeped
in venerable history, is a step into the past.
Portents of doom about the death of print have filled our
pages and (some might say ironically) our webpages for as long as I have been
part of Haymarket Publishing’s printing division. However, more and more
printers are disproving the doomsayers and instead painting a rosy future of
collaboration and cooperation between print and the web.
In our upcoming issue of PrintBuyer, we look at how
cross-media campaigns are giving printers new successes in the embattled direct
mail sector. However, where viral marketing, text alerts and online banner
ads all have a place, none of them are replacements to the printed product, but
merely extensions.
In the media sphere, online news is undoubtedly going great
guns, as I saw firsthand as part of the launch team for printweek.com and its
sister site packagingnews.co.uk, but that doesn’t signal the death knell of
newspapers or magazines. Video didn't kill the radio star. Amazon's Kindle ebook reader won't kill the novel. And online news websites certainly won't kill magazines.
Neither is it the end for print firms. The savviest
printers, and publishing houses for that matter, are nurturing their role as
communications providers in a multimedia world. The internet may add new
weapons to their delivery arsenal, but print remains the cornerstone of their
service. And it’s not just the big boys. The rise of hyperlocal media and
marketing means smaller firms can get in at the ground level of a growth
market.
So a move from the online world to the printed word is not a
backward step in the slightest. Conversely, those that move from print into
cross-media are not turncoats. Like it or not, technological breakthroughs like
the worldwide web have created a new world order for communicating information
and delivering a message. Print will remain a proud and effective medium for
years to come, but as a partner to the online product, not a rival.