Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

As one of this morning’s keynote sessions at the second day of O’Reilly’s TOC conference, Dale Dougherty delivered a presentation entitled “The Beauty of Print in a Digital Age.” Dougherty is the editor of O’Reilly’s Craft and Make magazines, which he classifies as a “book/magazine hybrid.” The magazines are both quarterlies, and each sells for $15. Dougherty’s stated aim, with these publications, is to create “something you keep, not throw away.” In terms of the encroaching tidal wave of online experiences and digital products (what Chris Anderson yesterday called a “relentless march”), Dougherty talked about print and digital co-existing. Or, as he put it, “The old and the new are interwoven, and the art of our day is to figure out how these two pieces fit together.” However, Dougherty also acknowledged that print today looks like a “poor country cousin” next to new and flashy gadgets like the iPhone. Despite this, he believes that “print layouts can be more sophisticated” than what you can do on the screen.

In terms of an overall reading experience, Dougherty was dismissive of an online or digital interface, saying that “the Internet today is largely a collection of snippets,” characterizing the experience as being one of “small bits of information scattered everywhere.” He continued, saying that this is “very much different than reading a book…it’s more like reading street signs when you’re driving a car.” Because of this, Dougherty said “print can still offer a great experience, [it is] more like a movie than a soundbite.” In fact, Dougherty feels that the print experience is enhanced by the comparison to the Internet because he feels that print is “personal, it belongs to you; it’s something you can share with others.” He also declared print a “terrific interface people already know how to use and enjoy.”

So while Dougherty speaks of some sort of combination of print and digital, saying that we should be “weaving the old and the new together,” it’s clear that he leans toward paper and is dismissive toward digital (even though most of his subscriptions occur through the website). Steve Jobs may be declaring the upcoming iPhone to be “the God machine,” but it’s clear that Dougherty believes that print has already been sent from heaven.