Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

Robin Steinberg (pictured above as her Second Life avatar) has an essay as part of Ad Age magazine’s MediaWorks column entitled “Is Print Dead? Not on Your (Second) Life.” Apparently Steinberg was at the recent 4A’s Media Conference, and was sitting on a panel when she was confronted with the question, Is print dead? Here’s what happened: “I took a breath and rallied myself: ‘Not on your life!’ I answered with passion. ‘Not on this life, your avatar life, or your Second Life. Print is not dead.’” She then goes on, in her essay, to state “I am certain that digital is not going to kill publishing.” To this I say, well, of course it’s not. In fact, not only will digital not kill publishing, but the two will merge and publishing will become digital (in terms of production and workflow, publishing has been digital for years; the only place where it’s still analog is at the final point, when the consumer gets his or her hands on it). What’s being talked about in the “print is dead” debate is something different than “digital killing publishing”; instead what’s happening is that the increasing habits of digital reading are leading to a decrease of physical reading. And this is happening by degrees in numerous areas, including newspapers, magazines, and books. Indeed, the death of books won’t be from an atomic blast of sudden reader disinterest, but instead will be a “death of a thousand cuts,” the first hundred of which have already occurred (for example, try telling the staffers of those magazines and newspapers who have recently lost their jobs due to electronic competition that digital is not having an effect on the publishing business). So Steinberg’s breathless defense of print seems misguided, as does her aligning the “print is dead” debate with the Second Life phenomenon. Digital reading is not an all-or-nothing alternative, where people exist as either a Norman Rockwell painting or an avatar that looks like Cory Doctorow. Instead, digital delivery and consumption of content is gradually seeping into all areas of our everyday lives, including the books, magazines and newspapers that we read. That is where digital is making an impact, and that is how digital will lead — not to publishing’s murder — but instead to its evolution.

Ad Age: “Is Print Dead? Not on Your (Second) Life”