Every quarter, someone trots out the “print is over” headline, and every quarter, I open my mailbox to find catalogs I actually shop from, I walk into a bookstore and see people flipping through glossies, and I pick up a beautifully designed SIP and think, This is how you make an impression.
Here’s the truth: Print is not over. It never died. It just took a backseat to trendy, sexy digital media, waiting for the day it would become the antidote in a world of doom-scrolling, constant notifications, and AI-generated everything. That day was yesterday, my friends.
Today, print – the tangible, finite, and premium medium that slows us down just enough to make us actually feel something – is once again on the rise, with marketers rediscovering what readers have always known: Print builds trust, credibility, and recall in ways a pixel can’t.
Print has staying power. It lingers on my coffee table. It gets tucked into my bag and travels with me. It’s passed from one person to another. Try doing that with a fleeting Instagram Story.
While traveling abroad recently, I couldn’t help but notice the abundance of magazine stands across the globe, how many publications there were dedicated to different topics, and how even in remote locations in Namibia, print stands offered vital central gathering points for the locals.
So, no, print isn’t dead. It’s alive, and well, and cooler than ever. The only thing that has expired is the old-school thinking from those who leave it out of their media mix.