Print or Digital?

Modern technology has brought a lot of changes—and challenges—to the print industry. In fact, digital media is one of the greatest challenges of traditional media over the past decades. Whether it’s print or broadcast, every media platform is affected by these changes. The once popular media such as newspaper, DVDs, and hard copy albums are now only becoming a part of history. They have been rapidly replaced by e-books and streaming movies. 

In the Huffington Post report entitled America’s Ten Disappearing Industries, newspapers ranked the highest in the industries facing the biggest risk of disappearing with a 28% constriction rate from 2007 to 2011. This is based on the data from the Council of Economic Advisors as analyzed by LinkedIn.

Small businesses, in particular, are the ones starting the digital revolution as they find greater return on investment from this medium. As they are able to easily and affordably reach their target audience, they are able to generate greater return.  

But this doesn’t mean that print media is dead. In a survey conducted by Modern Distribution Management with Real Results Marketing in 2011, it found out that 65 % of distributors still view print as alive and catalogs as an effective marketing channel. Although there are respondents that say catalogs are dead, the bottom line of the survey is that print is not dead but it’s changing. Balance is needed if a company is to succeed in today’s changing environment. Companies that are able to do this will thrive, and those that don’t will fall hard.