[responsive]
[/responsive]When Edison’s light bulb hit the market, candle makers were worried.
“They needn’t have been,” says Alex Marks in Marketing Magazine. “Fast-forward 130 years and candlemaking is a global business worth more than $5bn. Candles have, in many respects, become a luxury item – and in many contexts remain a preferable solution.”
Marks believes the same future is in store for print media. Rather than falling by the wayside, Marks predicts that print won’t die, due to its distinctly physical characteristics.
He predicts, “Digital will become the primary consumption channel for mainstream content currently in print form. But print will remain, indeed grow, in the luxury sector and more indulgent contexts.
“We are already seeing some evidence of this as titles such as Vogue and Elle post record circulation figures and upmarket publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Harper’s Bazaar record double-digit growth,” Marks explains.
As he notes, it’s about adaption. Just as the Internet didn’t spell the end of television (that medium has evolved and is thriving in ways not even imagined 10 years ago), digital media will not be the end of print.
“Paper has been around for more than 2000 years and I don’t think it is going back in the box, or remaining on the trees, just yet,” Marks says, noting that “…there are plenty of reasons to celebrate its continued longevity.”
Indeed.