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Written by Terri Stone on March 23, 2009
Newspapers and magazines are closing faster than you can say "pulp," but the old-guard media isn't giving up without a fight. In a bid to snare the eyeballs of notoriously fickle tweenagers, Tiger Beat magazine included 3D content on many of the pages of its March and April 2009 issues.
Tiger Beat's Scott Laufer told Folio: magazine that to create the effect, their "photographer used two cameras, set a few inches apart, to capture images simultaneously. Those two images were then composited together, shifting red and blue channels in the RGB photo, to create the three-dimensional effect. In house, we had to learn what shifts in color created the illusion of something being in the background, middle ground and foreground."
That seems like a lot of effort for dubious return, but then, I don't see the appeal of the Jonas Brothers, either.
So what do you think? Is print dying? Are the Jonas Brothers deserving of 3D? Can you believe Tiger Beat still exists?!
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Print only dies when it defines itself as print
Brazzell Marketing Agency
This is the old marketing lesson of the buggy whip makers. People in print businesses are not in print businesses at all. They are in the business of selling advertising supported content for particular target audiences. There is no reason for any of these companies to go out of business. There is every reason for them to explore almost every new medium option that arises.
Print will stop being a medium for most content, but not in my lifetime. Computers will have to develop to a point where they are as easy to carry as magazines and easy to read as black text on matte white. The back-lit white screens hurt people's eyes and compare poorly to text. These are only technological challenges that more efficient digital media will eventually overcome. Content providers need simply to ride the wave and not fight it.
Home Health Care Marketing
The touch, the feel of cotton content
As fast, flashy, and flexible as digital media is, there will always be a need for a physical piece of printed marketing collateral or other documentation. There is a certain segment of the population, that I do not think will die with Baby Boomers or Gen-Xers, that likes the feel of and gleens more knowledge from a presentation folder full of brochures or a newspaper.
The key for newspapers and magazines, IMHO, is to make your online content support your physical product. No one has said that your content has to be free just because it's on the internet. If your articles are compelling, people will seek them out and pay for them. If a certain segment of your customers would prefer to read your content online, don't count of online ad impressions or click throughs to support you. Charge a subscription fee that the market will bear.