Print, Pop Music, and Painful Pauses
Over Newspapers

Bizarre goings on at my gym recently - and they have nothing to do with my addiction to the new Zumba class or my refusal to take another called Yogalates (not a coffee drink that delivers inner peace, but a hybrid of yoga and pilates).

I was burning calories on an elliptical machine and watching the little TV, when an ad for Gwen Stefani came on. I wasn't paying all that much attention. And then I heard it. The narrator distinctly said "print projects." What the...? When they start selling print projects with a pop star, I pay attention.

They gave the www.hp.com/gwen link, so I checked it out. Evidently, Ms. Stefani is a designer, and at this web site you can order customized print projects by Gwen, including CD labels and note cards. Long live digital printing!

At about the same time, I got my weekly issue of The New Yorker magazine. Within a millisecond of spotting the headline "Out of Print," I knew it had to do with demise of some sort of printing. I immediately felt a sense of oh-no-here-we-go-again doom.

This article by Eric Alterman is powerful stuff. Its subhead is "The death and life of the American newspaper."

The American newspaper had its birth back in 1690, right here in Massachusetts, where the first and only issue by Benjamin Harris was produced. In 1721, The New England Courant was published by Ben Franklin's older brother James.

Over 300 hundred years later, we are witnessing the demise of our newspaper industry. Only old farts like me love to read the daily newspaper (two, in fact). It is primarily a generational thing, but the preferred way to get one's news today is over the internet.

"Since 1990, a quarter of all American newspaper jobs have disappeared," writes the author, who also states that no one has figured out how to save this industry here in America or anywhere else.

I love papers for lots of reasons. They are a daily habit I don't want to shake. When I'm away from home, I really do miss my Boston Globe. Certainly, I could get just about all the news elsewhere (and earlier), but I love the experience of reading the paper. I'm loyal to several columnists and other writers, but their work is online as well, so that's no excuse.

My 13-year-old son never reads the newspaper. From time to time I insist on reading something aloud from a story, because it's so interesting, timely, well written, or funny, but so far it hasn't made a convert out of him.

Here's an irony: you can read this insightful article online at www.newyorker.com. Just search on "Out of Print." You don't need to buy a copy of the magazine. I love magazines as well, but that's a different story.

As the lights of daily newspapers continue to fade, spotlights shine on customized print projects. We ought to celebrate that younger generations are being exposed to this new technology, even if they have no idea how it happens.

These kids may never develop a habit of reading newspapers or magazines, but the idea has crossed my mind that they represent a brand new and untapped market for printing and the graphic arts. What can you create that would make them cherish ink and paper the way some of us cherish a newspaper, day after day after day?

Comments? Talk to me at mdana@bostonprintbuyers.com.

©2008 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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Print Buyer Conference Update

September 11th - 12th, 2008

The following 15 companies have already reserved booths at our September print buyer conference in downtown Boston. Come meet them:

Xerox Corporation (Patron) Air Graphics American Printing Barrington Printing Cummings Printing Company Flagship Press Foster Printing Service Graphic Litho

HubCast Keene Promotions Landmark Impressions Original Smith Printing RR Donnelley Sandy Alexander Inc. Whitman Communications

Thanks to you all!

The Early Bird Rate still applies (but it won't last forever). Reserve your booth before June 1 and save $500!

Go to www.printbuyersconference.com for details.

Questions on exhibiting? Please contact Barbara Graham at exhibitorinfo@printbuyersinternational.com.

New Contributed Article

Kevin Fortin, the Director of Sales and Marketing for Narragansett Graphics in Coventry, RI, has written "The Green Printer Checklist." Read it here under Contributed Articles.

New Job Posting

Appleseed's of Beverly, MA is looking for a Print Production Coordinator. For details and application information, click here.

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