Print magazines vs. Digital media: which is better?

[mishahoi]

I chose a more controversial "which is better?" to spark more debate, as more and more people are going to have a strong opinion about this as time wears on.

I am pro "digital". I would love nothing more than to have an archive of all of the Vogues I have purchased over the years in one medium I can carry around. I am more of an advocate for tablet-based magazines (ie iPad) vs. computer/online magazines because there is a cold, detached feeling I get from online magazines. I don`t like them, web pages are very ugly.
I would much rather read the Nytimes and style.com iPhone apps than their online counterparts.

I would also love to be able to purchase 5 or 6 magazines for a long airplane ride or road trip. I could never carry around such weight in their paper forms.

Another reason is space- I don`t have much of it, living in a city where shoebox-sized apartments are considered luxury. I can imagine in places like Hong Kong, the feeling is the same. Who keeps CD jewel cases anymore?

As much as I enjoy reading a book and a magazine, they end up in storage, hardly ever seeing the light. I must continually dispose of them as my bookcases fill up. It saddens me, but I just cannot keep them.

The way I see it, I would keep my magazines and novels on a device like the ipad and enjoy trips to the library and art museums to pick through the large-format-sized books as a treat.

This is coming from someone who has yet to own something like the iPad, but next generation I will probably be purchasing one, and hoping more magazines will be available for it by then.

I know there are also cons..technology quickly becomes obsolete as do digital formats, waste, etc. What are your opinions?

 

[CrisGalaxy]

Well, I guess an Ipad wouldn't be so bad... But I still love the print versions very much! So I guess I will subscribe and buy magazines in their print versions till the last magazine is printed! lol and then I'll buy the Ipad or w/e they come up with in the next 5 years

 

[Lanbim Cord]

Print magazines,no doubt!
I like the smell of the paper,i like holding it while i'm waiting for the bus!
I like when it's thick and i came across the city and everybody's staring at me,and they are whispering behind my back:
"Look,how thick is that magazine!It's rather a book!"
"Wow,that's HUGE"
I like that i can touch the paper.

 

[eu-pt]

Can't we have both? I totally understand where you're coming from mishahoi because I also love to keep my Vogues and Tatlers and Harper's Bazaar , but not only they do take a lot of space, as they grab dust etc. On the other side I am also like dsoma love to flick through an good heavy mag, I even love to see the adverts.

There's an online magazine that almost achieved to transfer the feeling of actually reading a mag in paper to our little screens, it's called Chic Today. Here is the link:
http://magazine.chictoday.com/issue028/intheeyesofthebeholder/

Tell me what do you make of it!!!

 

[bun-bun]

Digital. It's just the more environmentally friendly thing to do. And that's important for me.

I used to be very anti-digital when it came to magazines, as nothing would be able to replace the feeling I got from flipping the pages, the glossiness of the whole thing, the sheer size of the photos, etc. But environmentally speaking, magazines cannot go on, it is just not sustainable. And lately, I have been very impressed looking at the magazines who've posted their archives online. In an IPad format, I'm all for current editions.

 

[TianSoFine]

I like being able to do quick flip-throughs or randomly open to any page. It also feels good to hold a thick volume in my hands.

 

[indepwe]

I like to be able to have the magazine in my hands. Yes its not environmentally friendly but maybe if every magazine went digital then there might not be many because of loss of jobs and stuff? We have had magazines long before any computer was invented so why should we suddenly go without the magazine just because everyone else is going techno? I just love print magazines.

 

[fantastical]

I understand both of bun-bun and mishahoi's points and I completely agree about them not being environmentally friendly, but I think technology can only help up to a point. What happens when there is some sort of glitch and you lose all of your magazines that you've "collected" or if there is some type of storm or something interfereing with the digital media and you can't access the magazine whenever you want?

I think magazines should definitely approach some sort of recyclable paper but then some people won't get that "glossy paper" that they love so much.

For me, digital will never replace print in any sort of medium whether it be books or magazines (I had the kindle for a week before giving it away - I missed the turning of the page feeling )

 

[blueorchid]

What happens when there is some sort of glitch and you lose all of your magazines that you've "collected" or if there is some type of storm or something interfereing with the digital media and you can't access the magazine whenever you want?

THAT is precisely what scares me off of digital technology for things like that. Although, I suppose your house could catch on fire and all your magazines could go with it, but I think there's a greater chance of something happening to an e-reader than that incident.

I have a hard time believing that digital media is really any better for our environment than print media. Just because you don't buy and throw it out every month like some people would a magazine doesn't really mean there's less waste. I think the environmental effects of digital media is hidden away from the public gaze better than print media. I mean you can't read about the factories where they make these gagets in the same way you could read about a pulp & paper mill. You can look on Google Maps and see ares of clear cut forests. On the other hand you can't really see the damaging effects that mining has for many of the materials used in electronic devices. There's also the difficulty of properly disposing of electronics. They're constantly being developed and upgraded, so the iPad you bought this year will be outdated in a year or two. What happens with our outdated iPad? Are there really efficiant ways of disposing of electronic waste? With magazines and books you could just pass them along to a friend, give them to a used bookstore etc.

 

[Tigertonio]

"What's better" really comes down to personal preference. For me, it's the feel, touch, and sometimes even the scents of the magazine that appeal to my senses. Call me old fashioned but I still enjoy my morning newspaper, too. I've subscribed to a couple of digital magazines but I hate that I have to use my visual controls constantly to see something up close or to see an entire spread on my screen. With a physical copy, I am also better able to grasp what the magazine's editorial management is trying to accomplish with its theme, format, and general direction. For the life of me, I'll never understand how so many can get so much from a few (sometimes bad) scans but then again, I guess I'm "old school" and need to learn and adjust.

 

[YoninahAliza]

Print vs. Digital is such a complex subject for me, I am neither completely for one or the other instead I linger in between the two. I personally love print magazines, the feel, the smell, the weight, an the status symbol. Yes, I think their is a bit of a status symbol when people see you carrying a certain magazine it says a lot about the type of person you are (I especially love carrying around Vogue or The New Yorker). Although digital is great in terms that its all in one place, and can be very eco friendly.

 

[mariemaud]

You can open a magazine or a book to any page, dive into the story
and it's in your hands
which creates an emotional bridge that I've never experienced with computers...
there is so much quantity into computers and that's what it is meant for, and I'm grateful that I can use such a useful tool for work, researches...

but it's also the reason why it would be impossible to create this intimacy feeling...

I would have trouble to reach infinitesimal world when endless database is that close... I have not been raised that way
maybe an ability that newer generations will or have already developped
being used to be feed that way... they won't have the feeling to "miss" something...

I still buy and read books and magazines.
Of course I changed my habits and buy much less, I really consider my purchase twice before buying and focuse in what is really inspiring/important to me... a good move at the end as it pushes me to question myself and readjust the focus...

George Lois on the iPad

"It's okay, I guess," he said. "But magazines will never die because there is a visceral feeling of having that thing in your hands and turning the pages. It's so different on the screen. It's the difference between looking at a woman and having sex with her."

source | nyobserver via MMA

This was quite well put, I can relate to this

 

[Tigertonio]

^That quote will be with me all day today. LOL! Thanks!

 

[mishahoi]

I honestly think that this generation is the one that feel this..."closeness" with print, getting a warm fuzzy feeling inside when holding a magazine/book/etc.

But you cannot deny, the next generations, ie those who are born now, will not have that same attachment to print. Print will become a luxury. e-books already outsell hardbacks.

The next step, I think, is to figure out how to not just transfer a magazine from print to digital, but how to transform digital to utilize what it will give us. I love video fashion editorials, for one.

 

[blueorchid]

Print will become a luxury. e-books already outsell hardbacks.

But is that really a sign of e-books lasting or people hopping on the latest technology bandwagon?

I prefer books, not so much because I get a warm fuzzy nostalgic feeling inside, but just because i find them way easier to navigate. I can open to any page I want at any moment, look in the index or refrences, much more quickly than one can do with an e-book. You can write in books and you can highlight certain passages, you can clip out pieces of a magazine that you like, and so on. With an e-book it's just so... you just can't do that sort of stuff with it. Sure, I think you can digitally highlight stuff, and print out your favourite editorials from scans online, but it's not really the same. You also don't have to recharge books or change their batteries. If you get a book wet you simply let it dry, if you get an e-book wet you have to probably get a new one. Books just seem more durable and "permanent" to me in a sense than e-books.

And that George Lois quotation is exactly how I feel about print. There's something so visceral about being caught up in a book or a magazine that I've never experienced with an e-book or any sort of similar technology. There's something more frivilous to me about digital technology than physical books.

 

[mishahoi]

But is that really a sign of e-books lasting or people hopping on the latest technology bandwagon?

I don`t know, but if enough people do hop on that bandwagon, it will effectively make the need for paper diminish (supply and demand), and you know, obsolete. :/

 

[mikeijames]

call me old-fashioned, but i love the touch and feel of a great magazine. also, i'm slightly concerned by how much power media companies have to claw back their material in the electronic space. we've seen it happen with books and i'm sure it will happen with magazines, too. i like being able to go back to the september issue of vogue from 2004 and look at what was going on without searching.

 

[micey]

From professional point of view print magazines are still a must. When talking about business of fashion mags print is still in the key role. It's easy to sell magazines and the companies are that way able to earn money also in other words they can pay the writers, ad's and so on. A jump directly to digital magazines would kill the business and leave a lot of people without jobs. The problem with web has been that people want to read here for free, some of them are ready to pay something for the entire magazine in virtual format but not all. It would be also a huge loss for magazine stands if there would be none or much less fashion mags for sale...

But from my personal point of view it's nice to see also virtual magazines. They are easy to read and I think the future will be there in someway. They also offer many opportunities like you can add video material inside the mag or possibility to link to Facebook via the magazine and take part to a group, a challenge or something like that. I think it's great if the magazine will be in both formats and the readers can choose the format they like. Of course this means that magazines should still have their websites with some content that's free for everyone, it's a good way to keep readers happy and show them always something that is not suitable for the magazine itself or so.

 

[girlalamode]

It's all about the digital magazine for me now. There is much more opportunity for fledgling magazines to get themselves out there online, and I have seen much more inspiring stuff because of it.

 

[silk skin paws]

I don't think in terms of which is better because digital and print both have a purpose. Digital is the future and more content will be geared towards the digital. Instead of a magazine why not have something that's compact? I suppose not having a printed magazine sitting around would be appealing to many. We live in a condensed culture. Everything is fast and/or convenient. Everything will be simplified into narrowed portions and tidbits.