The Death of Print?
Headlines about the death of print are sorta like headlines about the death of the local video store. Duncan Reilly raises the prospect at techcrunch with the demise of the local PC Mag, ‘PC World’.
There’s comment from Phil Sim here, and Chris Saad here.
Like the local video store, I don’t see print (even tech rags) dying any time soon. I really like print - the aesthetic, the feel, being able to read a mag in the sun. The simplicity. We’re not all hardwired to our feed readers, sucking down the latest in tech news every second of the day. However, the market is re-adjusting and our respective businesses simply cannot operate with the same MO and margins of 5 years ago. In video rentals, the K-marts/Myers/Targets (ie mass retail merchants) have changed the rental market forever. Video rentals have got to get smarter and more efficient. Same with the print mags. They’ve got to get leaner and focus on new value. It seems PC World (the Aus edition) couldn’t make that transition.