Hi. My name is Crystal Lindell and I work for a print magazine. Yes, print as in, “on paper.”
The publication has a website (two actually), and a Facebook page and a Twitter account, but at the heart of our work is our monthly print publication. Long story short, I rely on dead trees and snail mail for my paychecks each month (which makes me a little crazy), but I believe in what we do here.
Short story long, we’re doing just fine.
I hear all the time that publishing is dying and journalism is on its last breath and print publications are [insert random cemetery analogy].I receive sad, knowing looks from people when they find out I’m in “the business” that seem to scream “your industry is going to be in a virtual obituary section soon!”
But, we have 13,501 readers. Those readers don’t grab our publication off the racks at the grocery store or the coffee table at the dentist office. They are far from random, and we like it that way. We’re not trying to reach the world, we’re just trying to reach the industry, and we do a pretty good job of it.
They turn to us because we’re one of the few placestoturn for industry news, new products and information on how other retailers and manufacturers are doing their thing. It’s like a convention in a book - every single month.
As a side perk, it also ends up making the publication a great place for advertisers to reach a specific segment of the world. If you want to tell candy retailers you have a new packaging concept or confectionery manufactures you have a new logistical system, you can’t just place an ad inTIME magazineor even theWall Street Journal. Too few readers would be interested. If you put it inCandy Industry though, every single reader believes it’s relevant.
At the end of the line, it comes down to specific content for a specific audience.
Do I believe that in the future everyone in the candy business - from the woman buying the chocolate to the guy setting up the displays - will be reading our work on some sort of electronic device (which may or may not include infiltrating dreams through special sleep eye contacts/ear phone concepts)? Yes. I really do.
I also love the digital platform for my work. I love the concept of displaying 23 pictures because all 23 are the best and ink is free online. I love being able to link to past articles and outside websites so readers who want to can get more information. And, I love publishing work whenever the mood or the news strikes.
So, I look forward to that future.
For now though, I’m not worried about print product dying because even if it did, I know we’d survive. It’s our content that’s important after all - both to you and to us.
