For the Love of Our Craft

For many years, I kept a little quote I had clipped from a magazine on my desk. It has long since become buried on said desk, but it's a quote I will never forget. It said:

"I love your magazine. I love the feel of it and the smell of it. I love to open it up. I love the feeling of surprise at how paper and art come together as I turn each page. I love how it is the same, yet different, each month. Like I said, I love your magazine. Oh yeah, and I even love to read it."

I thought of those nice comments when I saw the recent campaign launched by a group of consumer publishers to help put the changes in technology in perspective. It's called the "Power of Print" and you may have seen it in hundreds of magazines this month. It appears across a from a close-up of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps face as he hits the wall in a winning race. It says:

"We surf the Internet.

We swim in magazines.

The Internet is exhilarating. Magazines are enveloping.
The Internet grabs you. Magazines embrace you.

The Internet is impulsive. Magazines are immersive.

And both media are growing.
Barely noticed amidst the thunderous Internet clamor is the simple fact that magazine readership has risen over the past five years.

Even in the age of the Internet, even among the groups one would assume are most singularly hooked on digital media, the appeal of magazines is growing.
Think of it this way: during the 12-year life of Google, magazine readership actually increased 11 percent.

What it proves, once again, is that a new medium doesn't necessarily displace an existng one. Just as movies didn't kill radio. Just as TV didn't kill movies. An established medium can continue to flourish so long as it continues to offer a unique experience. And, as reader loyalty and growth demonstrate, magazines do.

Which is why people aren't giving up swimming, just because they also enjoy surfing."

It's a good reminder. There are some things that the Internet does better because of its speed of delivery, such as provide breaking news. But there are a lot of things magazines do better, like providing in-depth analysis coupled with expansive artwork.

What an example of the power of print? Look at the logo for the campaign above. Each letter is made from the logo of a different magazine. See how many you know. Got a bunch? E-mail me at deb@glass.com and I'll tell you if you are right. Even if you don't know all of them, you will know a few.

And I venture to say, if that same logo were made out of letters from the top ten websites in the world, you and I wouldn't know a single one ...

Clicking with the LinkChick(tm)

On to the links .... the latest from LinkChick(tm) who, by the way, has agreed to allow us to reveal her identity for the first time. See her photo below. We will have some exiciting news about LinkChick next week, but here are this week's links:

In ode to baseball season, check out these unique baseball contracts or perhaps this retiring member of the team ... Or if baseball is not your sport, how about this one, which combines sportsmanship and safety. . . And while the big game in that link wasn't alive, it is definately was signed, sealed and delivered in this one ...

Video of the Week

comes to us from our own video department here at Key Communications. VPs Tara Taffera and Holly Biller were covering a rally on the Capital against the new lead paint regulations. Check out the yellow bird flying in background behind Congressman Bishop.