The Death and Resurrection of Print Media

Print is dead, or so we've been told for the past few years. Newspaper sales are down, Borders and Angus & Robertson stores are closing their doors and our attention shifts more and more to computer monitors. But is it a full stop or just another stage in the cycle?

The nature of books is changing. They are moving online but aren't remaining stagnant in their form. A more discerning palette for information is leading readers to different forms of consumption. The same person might skim through the paper online, read a Kindle Single (a digital book a seventh the size of a regular book) during their lunch-break, flick through a broadsheet on the train home and indulge in a traditional hardcover before bed. The prophecies that people aren't reading anymore are unfounded. Readers are just diversifying their source.

With traditional bookstores feeling the backlash from this new plethora of information outlets, unconventional ventures could prove the way forward. Ed's Martian Book is the creation of author Andrew Kessler, and sells over three thousand books. Well three thousand copies of the one book. His book. Although not the most financially sound move, Kessler freely admitting "I'm not a very good businessperson." He has sold a few hundred copies but at least his book is getting some attention in this store. Instead of ruthlessly vying for the attention of customers with displays and discounts, in his store he is guaranteed an audience.

The current state of affairs in publishing has been reached through the advance of technology but it wasn't a march towards an ideal, but rather a winding road of adaptation. Visual Loop recently teamed up with Brazilian designer, Flavia Marinho, to cover the history of printing. What it reveals is the rise of the book, the rise of the newspaper, the fall of the book, the rise of the novel, the collapse of newspapers, the rise of the magazine, the resurrection of the newspaper and so on. Overall it shows a trend of peaks and troughs, it has happened before, it is happening now and it is going to happen again.

Whether tablet PCs will destroy print media is yet to be seen, but there's something to be said about the smell of a new book, the feel of paper between your fingers and the satisfaction from a finished book on the nightstand that can't be mimicked by a computer. Well not yet at least.