The Future of Print

So many articles being published titled, "The Future of Print" or proclamations being made that, "PRINT IS DEAD!" These seem to only lead to reactions of one of two extremes - rigid defense that print is not going anywhere or demands for everyone to get with it and scrap the presses and move to digital-only models.

Does anyone consider the future of ALL printed stuff? In every "the future of print?" article I read, book people only think about books, magazine people only about magazines, newspapers only about newspapers. The business models are obviously different, but the method of production and distribution and consumption are the same. People can't see the forest for the pulped trees.

ID magazine has fallen

According to reports ID magazine is the next to fold. The oldest design magazine in the United States will be no more after they ship the February issue (I think). Having worked in print for the last 9 (nearly 10) years, it is a bizarre thing to see all of these seemingly staunch icons falling one by one to the economic tide.

On the flip side of that, there seem to be some new things in print, like the San Fransisco Panorama, from McSweeny's. Printed in 4-colors in broadsheet tabloid format, it looks like a pretty impressive specimen. Even the advertisements seem to be custom-made for this particular publication. Who knows if this is a viable effort in the long-term, but it is nice to see people putting new and interesting things out there in the physical world.

(image via notcot)