“I’ve never seen a blow-in card fall out of an iPad.”
So speaks the always wry and generally spot-on D. Eadward Tree in Publishing Executive. Tree’s article “6 Things Digital Natives Should Know About Magazines” is a fantastic primer for relative newcomers to the publishing industry, especially those who have heard nothing but the tired and boring “print is dead” mantra of the past several years.
And if you’re asking yourself “what’s a blow-in card?” you absolutely need to read the article.
(It’s also a good reminder for long-time publishing folks who have had to wrap their heads around digital publishing and are now realizing that neglecting their print side is a dangerous career choice.)
As the author suggests, digital publishing professionals are all of a sudden being asked to see print in a new (for them) light. We know it can be mind-bending for a millennial to understand that print is not going away. And it can also be a challenge for the more seasoned among us, who have seen print struggle and heard the frenetic digital drumbeat.
Tree points out some key characteristics of print that might evade those more comfortable in their digital environment. Among them, “Print in multi-dimensional. Print engages the reader’s hands, eyes, ears, and even nose in ways that digital media can’t. You can put a gatefold or even a belly band into a digital edition, but in only two dimensions they’re just not the same. A special section can really stand out if it’s narrower than the rest of the printed magazine or uses different paper. I’ve never seen a blow-in card fall out of an iPad.”
If you are working in the industry and find yourself being asked to work with print, you can’t fake it. Read the entire article for more insights. This is the stuff you need to understand.
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