Author and e-media proponent, Joe Pulizzi, surprised readers of Folio magazine with his September 2010 column, “Seven Reasons Print Will Make a Comeback in 2011.” In summary, Joe gave the following rational for his conclusion:
1) Getting Attention: with fewer magazines, “more attention is paid to each piece.”
2) The Focus on Customer Retention: magazines are great at accomplishing this primary goal of marketers. This is especially true of custom publications and newsletters.
3) No Audience Development Costs: magazines spend the money and time do this, so marketers don’t need to.
4) What’s Old is New Again: Joe has heard “many marketers talk about leveraging print as something new in their marketing mix.”
5) Customers Still Need to Ask Questions: The Internet is great at answering questions; magazines are excellent at asking the questions. Print drives people online to advertisers’ Websites.
6) Print Still Excites People: The printed word is still perceived as more credible than anything online. This is evidenced by the fact that it’s harder and harder to convince people to be interviewed for an online article, but they get excited when the article will appear in print.
7) Unplug: As more people opt to unplug, disconnecting themselves from digital media, they will engage more with print media.
Joe concludes by saying, “Don’t forget that print can still play an important role in your overall marketing mix.”