Margie Dana

Read It and Don't Weep

Caleb Crain's article in this week's New Yorker magazine is brilliant. It's entitled "Twilight of the Books," with the subtitle, "What will life be like if people stop reading?"

He shares a lot of good data about the decline of reading in America (though we are by no means unique in this trend). I learned that:

• In 1/2004, 49% of respondents to a survey done by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press said they'd read a newspaper the day before. In 2006, that number dropped to 43% and included papers read online.

• According to the NEA's "To Read or Not to Read," American households' spending on books "is near its twenty-year low."

What interests me more than this data is his coverage of the early history of reading. It gets better: he discusses different types of media as learning tools.

He mentions a study that involved a PowerPoint presentation. Some test subjects read the information silently, while others read along with the audio presentation. "The silent readers remembered more," he writes, and they were also more likely to agree with the statement that "The presentation was interesting." (There. More proof that PowerPoint presentations are deadly.)

However, when Crain touches on television and other streaming media, he makes the point that these media - and not reading - generate a unique emotional responsiveness.

"Streaming media give actual pictures and sounds instead of mere descriptions of them," writes the author. We can get a much fuller sense of a person we view in a video or on TV than by merely reading about that person in print.

In fact, says Crain, "There is nothing like this connection in print. A feeling for a writer never touches the fact of the writer herself, unless reader and writer happen to meet. In fact, from Shakespeare to Pynchon, the personalities of many writers have been mysterious."

Crain does an excellent job of covering the experience of reading vs. the experience of viewing something in a new media. Quite insightful.

When I finished the article, I was reminded of a message that's echoed throughout the printing industry in 2007: successful communication nowadays is about integration of various media. It's not just about the printed word.

If it weren't for newer media, I couldn't write this next sentence. Read Caleb Crain's article for yourself; it's online at www.newyorker.com. I still prefer reading it in the magazine, but I am so glad it's available online as well.

©2007 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You're free to forward this email to friends and colleagues: please do! However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

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On my bulletin board is a tattered photocopy of something written by Fra Giovanni, the classical Italian scholar. It is a letter he wrote to a friend on Christmas Eve in 1513.

TAKE JOY! By Fra Giovanni, A.D. 1513

I salute you! There is nothing I can give you which you have not; but there is much, that, while I cannot give, you can take.

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take Heaven.

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant. Take Peace.

The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet, within our reach, is joy. Take Joy.

And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you, with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

January 15th New Year Networking Party in Boston! Open to Everyone!

6:00 to 8:30 pm
Millennium Bostonian Hotel

Join us for cocktails, dinner, and an interactive networking activity on January 15th in Boston to kick off the New Year. Seating is limited, so register online today at www.bostonprintbuyers.com/events.

BPB Members pay just $35; others pay $65. Add $10 at the door. Tell your colleagues. Come meet old friends and make new ones!

3rd Annual Print Buyers Conference - Better in Boston!

Hold the dates for '08:

September 10 - 12, 2008
The Sheraton Boston Hotel
Boston, MA

September 10th: Print Buyer Boot Camp!™ (full day)

September 11 - 12th: Two full days of Conference and Exhibit Hall

Interested in exhibiting? Let us know at info@printbuyersinternational.com.

Job Posted

Development Marketing Purchasing Specialist needed by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA.

For details on the above job opening and to apply, visit our Job Bank.

Members can post jobs for free! Others pay just $250 for 4 weeks.
Visit our Job Bank page.

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A few Conference Photos