Will Gas Prices Accelerate Death of Print?

Print industry executives have been ratcheting up the reverb on “print is dead” rhetoric for years now. And there have been plenty of reasons to worry. But spiraling gas prices wasn’t one of them. That is, until now.

Check out the “Perfect Storm” scenario laid out via Steve “Micro Persuasion” Rubel’s blog:

For starters, as gas prices go up, so will the distribution costs. This could have a significant impact on margins. ... Second, there's a greater awareness among consumers of their environmental impact. At the Forbes Online Brand Summit earlier this year, Jeff Cole from USC Annenberg predicted that as this broadens, consumers will cut back on print in favor of digital media. I think he's right. ... Last but not least we have the growing popularity of speedy 3G-enabled smart phones, including the new iPhone 3G. The devices are declining in price while offering a lot more sophisticated experience for reading news.

That third part I’m not so sure about (I consume more media than most, and I am not a huge fan of the smart phone browsing experience) but there’s truth in the first two.

The analogous question publishers should be asking themselves—or, at least, be prepared to ask—is this: Are they George Clooney? Are they willing to go down with the ship?

[image via Idolator]

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By Dylan Stableford --

COMMENTS/DISCUSS: 3

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death of print

Submitted by ken on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 08:11.

So a blogger says print will die. Who cares? This is a blogger after all, not necessarily a reputable source of information. And you know what? I'll bet he reads Blogger MAGAZINE!

You Should Care

Submitted by Michael Turro on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 10:06.

I'm not a blogger (well, I kind of do blog, but not for money) - I make my living in the print magazine world - and I care. I've been saying for a long time now that the whole "print is dead" meme is not about the consumer preference - it's about the operational costs of putting ink on paper. Economic conditions are conspiring to kill the feasibility of paper based publishing - how many publishers (hell, how many businesses) will be able to survive, let alone thrive, in a world where their operational costs double as the value of their product (advertising space in the case of the magazine) halves? Certainly there may be room for debate on that last assumption about the value of magazine advertising, but I think it's a given that it's going to cost a lot more to print and distribute a paper magazine in one year, five years, ten years, than it does today. If we lived in a world where there was no competition in the information distribution market I'd say print magazines might be able to absorb those costs - just increase prices and increase revenue. But with the competition as fierce as it is today, I'd have to say that print is diseased, though not necessarily dead.

Another nail in the coffin

Submitted by Cheryl R on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 14:53.

I'm starting to see people changing their delivery address from office to home, or much worse, cancelling their subscriptions all together because their company's "mail room won't deliver magazines anymore." Is that where "going green" is going? If that type of policy becomes standard we've got that to contend with too...

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