Print vs. Internet

I think most of us have our little pet routines that help our world to feel familiar and ordered. For example, my mornings always begin with a cup of coffee, and part of my routine is to use that time to do a little reading or magazine perusing. Yesterday morning I was flipping through the new issue of "O" Magazine, (of course I want to "Live the Good Life") and came across an ad from, I'm guessing, the Magazine lobby. The Headline on the full page ad was -

"We surf the Internet.
We swim in magazines."

I am often asked how I view the fate of our printed illustrated maps with the rise of the Internet and GPS mapping. My reply is a firm belief that tourists will always want their fun tourist map. It's pretty hard to frame your GPS and hang it on the wall or put it in your scrapbook, just not the memory maker that our maps are. But I think that the copy in this ad says it much better, so I'd like to share some of it with you with a little commentary of my own.

"The Internet is exhilarating, Magazines are enveloping. (and treasure maps are treasures). The Internet grabs you. Magazines embrace you. Internet is impulsive. Magazines are immersive. And both media are growing." (Which is why we are growing both media.)

"Barely noticed amidst the thunderous Internet clamor is the simple fact that magazine readership (along with our map distribution) has risen over the past five years."

"...during the 12-year life of Google, magazine readership actually increased 11 percent."

"What it proves, once again, is that a new medium doesn't necessarily displace an existing one. Just as movies didn't kill radio. Just as TV didn't kill movies." (and GPS or Google won't kill illustrated tourist maps)

I'm going to get an iPad. I believe it could be a great presentation tool and a fun way to surf the net. But I just can't imagine sitting down with my morning cup of coffee and my iPad. In the morning I want to engage all of my senses. I want to smell the coffee, I want to feel the paper and smell the ink. I still want to turn the pages of a magazine and write in the margins of my books. I want both the iPad and print in my life. They satisfy different parts of me the same way a Discovery Map satisfies the tourist's need to locate treasures in a way a GPS map never could.