More Support of the Truce Between Print and Digital

Another party heard from as more industry pros call a truce in the war between print and digital.

Michael Biggerstaff of Nxtbook Media recently blogged about it, saying “We have always believed publishing revolves around a both/and and not an either/or strategy when it comes to the two mediums. We care about digital but also know that print has to be worked and played to its strengths.”

Biggerstaff is responding to a recent interview with Samir “Mr. Magazine” Husni in which he told Media Update’s Aisling McCarthy that “the battle is over, and the truce has been drawn up.”

Print and digital can – and indeed have – been working together for years. And this symbiotic relationship has a solid precedent in other disruptive media, which provides some guidelines for publishers seeking to leverage both platforms.

“For example, you wouldn’t run radio content on television, but that was exactly what very early programming was like on TV,” Biggerstaff explains. “It didn’t take long for TV to figure out it had to be different. Digital should absolutely be differentiated from print so more readers will value each platform for its unique merits. They should support each other and promote each other.”

“The great benefit is two different platforms with their own set of revenue metrics. Digital is no longer just an add-on to print like some publishers still believe today.”

The only point that Biggerstaff takes issue with is Husni’s assertion that “most” content publishers have learned from their mistakes.

“I would say it seems to be more 50/50 in that regard,” Biggerstaff notes. “I do think that it is something that is changing but we still have a ways to go.”

I don’t know for certain where the industry falls overall, but one thing I do know – the future of publishing lies in embracing each available platform for its particular strengths.