When did print die? Language holds more etiquette, value, and class than the need for designer clothing. But then that is just my opinion. “The auto industry and the print industry have essentially the same problem,” said Clay Shirky, the author of “Here Comes Everybody.” “The older customers like the older products and the new customers like the new ones.”
The problem with that logic is the fact that customers aren’t getting any younger. So I ask you; Why should this media die with its audience? When it comes down to categorization, I see audience in three stages; the “prestigious”, the “adolescent”, and the “new age”. To each category in its own right one can see the incline of media and decline of print. Why should one class of customer fall out of touch because of another. I am, and we are the “adolescent” generation. We were old enough to be mature around print but are young enough that we see where media is going. We have the most potential. In the center of it all, the adolescent writers can bridge the media. This is not as simple as: “old plus new equals product,” It is about weighing the strengths of each and creating an entirely new print form, a “Hommage”.
Lets take a similar example from the automobile industry as Shirky did. The German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturers, Bavarian Motor Works. BMW created the ‘328 Hommage’; a new car with a similar feel. What I mean by that is the original BMW ‘328’ was “the” dream sports car of the 1930s and on it’s 75th anniversary of its creation, the manufacturing company decided to pay tribute with its special ‘Hommage’ model. So is print media in for its “hommage”? Think of it less of a remix/revival and more of a celebration embodying what we all love about print. Picture yourself in a Chapters/Starbucks complex; the newly brewing cappuccino in one hand, and printed paper between your fingers in the other. A newspaper coated with fresk ink on dry paper. It’s dry enough that you add texture of ink to your fingertips after licking them just to turn each page. You commit to your daily fix and on your way out to work switch to the link on smart phone, eReader or tablet to watch the electronic journals of the articles you just read that expand the stories.
Wouldn’t that be something? But then that is still just my opinion on the matter. Stay tuned, stay Artless folks.
Cloudboy 