Print might be back—but its really not
All things in moderation, please.
Good morning.
Going to keep it short today since the last two have been pretty long. I appreciate you even opening this email and want to let you get on with your day.
Last month at Feed Me, Emily Sundberg reported that The Cut will be producing a print edition this fall.
Per Sundberg: “It will be sent to subscribers and also be available on newsstands…I think this print issue will be a really good experiment for their advertising team, buying in print is hot! Earlier this year, NYLON magazine brought back their print product, Byline is doing a great job of printing issues, and clearly Interview is doing something right.”
People want non-digital products. Take this example from the other end of the spectrum: Bloomberg Businessweek just relaunched as a 120 page monthly magazine.
Businessweek’s editor, Brad Stone, says the following about the relaunch: “I’m a believer in the leaned-back, distraction-free luxury of print. And I do think that there’s a place for it and maybe even we’ll see a bit of a comeback…We all know how difficult it is to sit there and read a 4,000 or 5,000-word investigation online, even on a story or a topic we care about. But people say they want that.”
This is right in my wheelhouse. I like print products because I don’t have to look at a screen. It feels like a luxury to sit and read a long feature in a magazine or a newspaper. And I think more people are want a little bit of that in their life.
This story about the Economist bringing back churned or lapsed subscribers with a print package also caught my eye for this very reason. Reminding people of the quality and the luxury of a good print product and a brand that cares about making something special for them.
The Cut seems to be at the peak of its brand goodwill. They seem to produce the only remaining viral stories on the internet. Why wouldn’t you take a shot at extending your goodwill to a limited run in print, test if that opens up another revenue stream, and then see if it makes enough sense as a premium bi-monthly or quarterly product or even just as a limited-run subscriber exclusive?
I’m not smart or cool enough to understand this completely, but there is something there about aging millennials wanting a product that feels more luxury, the feeling of being “offline” as something special, and the fact that a lot of the internet is kind of boring that advertisers want to tap into the people tied into all of that.
Print is not back and print is not coming back. But it can be a smart brand and business decision if done for the right reasons.
One good quote
“If you have an interface point and you have customer data—particularly anything around consumption and intent—you have a media business without the fundamental expense structure of a media business. This, to me, is as existential as AI. If you’re a bank you’re a media business; if you’re an airline you’re a media business; if you’re Costco you’re a media business; if you’re Instacart you’re a media business; if you’re Uber you’re a media business…[A]nd anyone trying to sell unremarkable impressions is going to have a really hard time. There has to be deep performative value in what you make, either because you are convening people or bringing together a buyer or seller. But I think beyond that, we love imperfection, we love humans, we love people that bring love to what they make and that’s what’s really important.”
I’m going to cop out and use a quote I already surfaced last week. This one is from Troy Young on a recent episode of People v. Algorithms. I keep thinking about this quote.
More premium links
One of the co-founders of The Intercept is starting a small investigative journalism outlet on Substack. I wonder if they’ll use Substack’s chat function.
Speaking of The Intercept they reported that the New York Times used AI to generate headlines but that it was just a test. Yeah, man—everyone is doing something like this.
The Washington Post launched an AI chatbot focused on providing answers related to climate change. This kind of product is a good idea. I’m not sure how much people will use this service but say you had an archive of thousands of recipes and cooking advice (that is continually expanding) you could pull from with a tool that curated meal plans and recommendations for people in a more useful way than the current Google experience, now then you might be in a good position to create a useful product. Too bad I don’t know anything like that.
Meta's Threads turned one! Whoopee!
In Vanity Fair, Charlotte Klein profiled the Wall Street Journal’s Emma Tucker who is one of the media success stories of the year so far.
Evan Shapiro shared these crazy graphics that always blow my mind. People seem to love them on LinkedIn but I find them kind of confusing even if the ideas are interesting. One shows how Spotify is the subscription service consumers most mark as “must-have” and then there is his media universe map that is insanely hard to read but kind of shows you how the media universe looks today.
Per Adweek, ad spends on TikTok are apparently slowing and usage is stalling (slightly) with the threat of a ban in the U.S. ongoing. I predict many more stories like this over the next year. Probably in the middle of July next summer when things get slow again.