Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

Alt-country music magazine No Depression, created thirteen years ago, recently announced that it’s going to cease printing a physical edition. However, the magazine’s website will continue to exist, and will be expanded with additional content. And yet, while the editors claim that the website “will in no way replace the print edition,” the fact that the website’s going to continue to exist while the magazine goes away speaks volumes.

In a note in the recent issue, the magazine’s editors cited numerous reasons for the decision to halt printing the magazine, such as the lack of advertising revenue and “the precipitous fall of the music industry.” But, of course, it’s more complicated than that; this is about publishing and paper as much as it is about words and music:

The decline of brick and mortar music retail means we have fewer newsstands on which to sell our magazine, and small labels have fewer venues that might embrace and hand-sell their music. Ditto for independent bookstores. Paper manufacturers have consolidated and begun closing mills to cut production; we’ve been told to expect three price increases in 2008. Last year there was a shift in postal regulations, written by and for big publishers, which shifted costs down to smaller publishers whose economies of scale are unable to take advantage of advanced sorting techniques.

So while it’s depressing to see yet another magazine bite the dust, at least the brand (and hopefully the archives) will continue to live online.