Print is ‘not dead’ as long as content is relevant
A group of panelists at Mumbrella’s Publish conference have concluded print is not dead, so long as the content is relevant, engaging and tactile.
Natalie Taylor, the national sales director of BlueStar Group, told the audience: “Print is the tool that you stop and you engage with and it’s tactile, you are consumed within your own time.”
Taylor argued advertisers will also engage with the medium when the content sparks innovation and engagement.
“It is having that point of difference so when you are flicking through the pages that engagement, the spark – it’s the innovation that you can have and if you can spin that in the right way to advertisers, that is a greater cut through.”
Cassie Laffey, content and publications manager at Flight Centre Travel Group, added to Taylor’s point.
The content marketing manager at APT Travel Group, Fiona Corsie, agreed adding it has always been about content, it is only the way the content is delivered that has changed.
“Content has been king ever since Moses came down the mountain with a few tablets. It is how you present the content that’s changed now. It is really about taking out the sell and making it inspirational and giving people what they want and speaking to them in a different voice,” Corsie added.
The CEO at Adventures Group Holdings, Rob Gallagher, said the big next challenge for publishers is going to be how to get your print product into the hands of your consumers.
Supermarkets and newsagencies are “both challenged distribution models” and Australia Post is increasing its prices, meaning publishers need to work with partners in a smarter way.
Concluding the panel discussion on ‘How Brands are Using Print in the Battle for Attention’, Gallagher, said: “A lot of the stuff we are talking about is just good content, it is not actually a content strategy, it’s just content execution which is what publishers have done all through time, it’s that ability to find nuance.”
There is barely a coherent sentence quoted in this article, let alone a definitive conclusion. Print has a wonderful sense of nostalgia to it, but it is dead because the exact same content can obtained more easily and for free on their phone.
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The printed word is not dead – PwC confirmed book sales have been rising for some time now. The challenge for mags, papers is making good content in a printed format which is a positive value exchange for the reader. When it takes 15 pages to get to the first bit of content and even then, those are all sponsored or ‘native’, eyeballs are going to go elsewhere.
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‘Print’ as an umbrella term is useless, and deader than monty python’s parrot. As are the glory days of print advertising, of charging thousands for pages, of publishers expecting advertisers to dutifully genuflect in deference at their product being featured on the cover.
But not all print is dead, it’s just resting.
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In my opinion Print is not dead but we as an industry are killing it by talking it down. Physical magazines engage people for over 60 minutes at a time, in their own time – how can we even compare that amount of time spend with a brand via digital. At the end of the day people will consume content in their own way – but honestly feel that in a world of digital junk food for our brains – engaging in a print publication has no better feeling.
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Agreed poorly written article here…. I was at this event yesterday and was one of the better panel sessions and some very good examples discussed around ROI and engagement in print. I disagree, print is not dead.
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I work for a suburban newspaper chain in Perth. Print is certainly not dead, and readers enjoy free suburban newspapers as a valuable source of local news and information.
Unless we take steps and start to build some trust in our suite of products, we are in danger of falling into a trap of a self fulling prophecy.
To our readers, and a majority of established clients, it is steady as you go, those who have jumped ship to run to run other types of marketing have not seen the magical uptake in local business.
We must take more responsibility to demonstrate that print is alive and well- even in today’s economic conditions.
I have found that in many market categories print punches above it’s weight in cost efficiency and effectiveness and will always offer a complimentary or viable alternative to most forms of marketing.
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