I was at client meeting today and among other things, we touched on the pros and cons of traditional print placements. While traditional is inevitably moving towards the all-digital, all-viral, all-social era, my client and I pondered on why we still love reading print.
Sure, there’s the argument of the tangible “leafing through” a magazine at the airport, on the train or waiting at the doctor’s office. But, there’s more to it, there’s an exclusivity about reading the Sunday paper or your favorite magazine even though you can have 24 access to it online. For example, I know when I sit down to read TIME I will be focusing on reading and digesting that pub’s information only. And I look forward to that.
At the same time, I never read TIME.com because I simply do not wish to be distracted by links and pop ups that interrupt my reading. Knowing that I can instantly search for a million things that I find interesting on the publication’s site is tempting, but not something I seek out when reading certain magazines.
At the same time, I love logging on to www.nytimes.com, but hardly ever read the tangible version of the paper anymore. NYTimes is a rich source of info that’s constantly updated, and that’s what I look for when sharing information on my social networks.
The odd thing is that I do recycle and believe in not wasting paper. However, there are times when I crave those 20-30 minutes of quiet reading time like the old days, when digesting information was more important than skimming it and virally sharing it before moving onto the next link.
I believe that both print and online placements have strengths and weaknesses. Online placements (especially via social media) tend to have a much broader impact in a short period of time. The question is, how much does that info sticks with you in the long run?
On the other hand, we are humans and tend to assign value in tangible things - old clippings, front page collectibles, cutting out recipes (I still do that!) and even saving articles for loved ones. With print pubs, we tend to assign more value in article we spend 15 minutes reading when we would probably just skim its online equivalent, simply because we get far more distracted interacting virtually.