Print Fetish is 1 Year Old

12/11/07

One of Mr. McGinnis's magazine stacks this day last year.

Print Fetish is 1 year old today! What have we learned? The Internet only means the end of particular business models... corporate media and newspapers will shift almost completely online, while print media will target smaller audiences with more specific interests. Point of view, the quality of design, editorial selection and arrangement will improve to appeal to more refined tastes, while advertising will have less influence over content. Print is NOT dead, nor will it die. In fact, hand made book-arts, 'zines, small press and independently owned magazines are more prevalent than ever, even in the face of horrific media consolidation.

Spoonbill & Sugartown in Brooklyn; photo by Is It Cool Enough For Marty?

Its cheaper and easier to print full color on high quality paper than its ever been. Print is thriving because of new media technologies, not in opposition to it. Computers and scanners make it easier to layout and prepare files while the Internet forms a symbiosis with printed matter. A few magazines are ahead of the curve and already working this symbiosis like Dazed & Confused's Dazed Digital.

Back issue promised land, Dorama in Japan; photo by jazzlah

The cool kids, not just the old dudes, still want to hold their own work in their hands. They still want the finality of their art and words on paper, and so does the audience. Print forces one to make choices in their art because they must conform to the structure of an object. They must proofread, color correct and edit length–and unlike the internet, once it's out there, its done, there is no going back to fix it. The audience appreciates this effort, and still respects and craves it.

A few of us even have a fetish for it.