A Return to Print
Posted in: What's the Buzz
“The screen experience just flattens the world, so that a Pulitzer Prize-winning story feels the same as spam. Some things deserve better.” (Adventure Journal Publisher Stephen Casimiro, as told to the New York Times.)
What are you doing reading this hard copy, paper magazine? Aren’t you supposed to be reading everything these days on your phone or mobile device? On your laptop? On your desktop? Are you one of those “old timers” that still reads paper scriptures? Aren’t you only able to consume content one scrolled bite at a time? That’s what the market tells us. Memory of a goldfish (2 seconds) is the mantra when considering content consumers. Small bites. Not too involved. Ain’t nobody got time for more than 200 words at a time, right? US Today newspaper pioneered that type of thinking, offering articles and stories that could be read quickly, without having to turn the page to finish what was being read.
There’s a quiet revolution happening “out there” with people turning and returning to print. Why? Because people are sick and tired of the distractions encountered when reading anything digitally. Ads, pop ups, email notifications, text and voicemail notifications, app notifications, news notifications. Want to read a story on your phone? Download the app, set up an account, set up a user name and password (re-enter your user name and password to make sure you aren’t a moron and entered it incorrectly to begin with), get an email to confirm your account, pay a little more to get full access, then have the entire thing crash so you get the opportunity to practice all the patience lessons you’ve had in church and start the process all over again.
Have you ever discussed a restaurant you’d like to check out or a product you’d like to buy, only to discover 6 minutes later that you are now seeing articles for that exact restaurant or ads for the product you discussed pop up on your phone? Ya, people are sick of that as well.
“We’re all exhausted from our screens. We want something to savor.” Stephen Casimiro, publisher of Adventure Journal speaks the truth.
As long as I own and publish The Arizona Beehive Magazine, it will always be primarily in paper form. Our publication may be read digitally on issuu.com. But The Beehive is meant to be picked up and enjoyed, sitting back while reading (as opposed to leaning forward while scrolling). As the magazine continues to grow, we will improve the quality of the experience. And by “grow” I mean by revenue. The cost of printing on paper has skyrocketed since the pandemic, mostly due to paper companies shifting away from manufacturing rolls of print paper to cardboard boxes as the world now has everything shipped directly to its front door.
We may not produce Pulitzer Prize-worthy content, but we do create content worthy of our LDS community that is meant to be consumed at an undistracted pace. The world may be in commotion, but we are not as we serve to help calm down our part of the world by presenting uplifting stories and articles in paper form that resonate with members of the Church.
Thank you for reading….
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