ALL ABOUT EYEBALLS

A year or so ago, we lamented the demise of magazines – and reminisced about our fondness for print.

That decline hasn’t changed.  In many cases, Publishers’ Bureau reports it’s gotten worse, with digitals grabbing market and ad and visual shares everywhere.  [Except for celebrity, men’s fitness, and ‘focused’ mags.]

But the sadnesses really struck home when Ladies’ Home Journal announced it was out of the subscribers’ business this July, moving to quarterly newsstand issues.  Sure, its heyday was in the ‘40s and ‘50s.  Yet we as PR practitioners in the late 20^th century worked with editors and columnists to promote client wares and stories, and celebrated when they said it was a go. 

For those who naysay the medium, contrast it with Web experiences.  How many times have you surfed a specific topic, and gotten lost in the maelstrom that’s Google search?  Or clicked on one link and found, like Alice, that you were falling quickly through hours of unsorted (and sometime un-validated) content?

There’s a finite beginning and end to a magazine.  Something that limits our thoughts, in fact, concentrates it into our memories.  A reportorial coup like Steven Brill’s dissection of our health care system (Time magazine April 4, 2013) is meant to be dissected, digested, and discussed.  Few Web bytes can claim that.

At the end, everyone says, print will die because increasing costs and decreasing ads don’t make financial sense.  Yet, like LHJ, we “never underestimate the power of a woman.”

PRINT IS THE NEW BLACK

I’m an offline junkie.

There, I’ve said it.  Do I feel better because I admitted it?

Sorta.  Oh, I – and my colleagues – have all the requisite e-tools, from iPad, Nook, and smart phones galore to the latest in ergonomic desk-etry.  And the curiosity to match, whether it’s technology or content that catches our eye.

Yet there’s something seductive about the package that print offers.  No, we’ve not been pumped by the magazine industry’s ads in trade publications about the Power of Print.  “The top 25 magazines reach a wider audience than the top 25 prime-time TV shows.”  Or:  “Readers spend an average of 43 minutes per issue.”

Facts, to be honest, don’t persuade.  What does turn our heads – and fingers – are the touch and feel of a Print piece in hand, the tactile sensation of flipping pages, for real, not with a clicker. 

That kind of connection matters inside companies.  When a print piece is delivered straight into cubicles and mailboxes and desks of employees around the world, recipients take note.  They pause.  Curl up.  Get comfortable and enjoy the read (unless it’s written in language so non-compelling and so peppered with isms from corporate/technical lands).  And we’ve been witness to that wonderful event. 

Now for the pushback.

1.  “Print costs too much.”  How about trying downloadable pdfs and jpegs for employees to print on the local photocopier? 
2. “We’ve got to be green aware.”  Let us ask this question:  How many emails and attachments do you think employees print, despite the plea to conserve the environment?

The objections continue. 

We will too:  Ever met a re-engineered business process taught solely online, minus visual handouts?  Or a new benefits program without charts and take-aways?  How many  times have you lost track of a Web site or video or ad you want to refer to? 

There is a place for everything, and everything in its place.  Every medium deserves our undivided attention, for all the right reasons.

NEITHER RAIN NOR SNOW NOR …

Sad news. 

The United States Postal Service, still way far from profitability, plans to close more than 3,600 branches soon, with thousands of other facilities and stations under review.  Older consumers in rural communities are up in arms about the loss of this essential public service.  Death notices have been posted – and rallies, initiated to save the local gathering places.

What happened?  Together with the recession, the digitization of America did in Ben Franklin’s institution.    As did the high cost of employee benefits and, most probably, bureaucratic inefficiencies.

Yet name us one person who doesn’t like to receive snail mail at home and at the office. Who doesn’t eagerly grab the latest copies of Esquire and People, of Oprah and, yes, The Economist.   And who doesn’t thrill to get the occasional hand-written letter, the overseas postcard, and, of course, birthday and holiday greetings.

In our view, online “everything” isn’t the panacea.    Some of the most effective internal and external communications are delivered by the office mail supervisor and the friendly post-person.  That effectiveness can be measured through the item’s long shelf life, helping drive retention of messages. It can also be seen in colorful pictures that seduce us into dreams and planning, and say “touch me.”  Even packages with deliberate calls to action – even if it’s only “order me” – usually delight the recipient. 

And then there’s the deliverer.  In study after study, consumers say that it’s their postal service person who goes above and beyond the call of duty.  They welcome the human touch, the open welcome provided by the mail carrier, and the opportunity to talk.

Our USPS representative at home is moving on to another, easier route.  He thanked us for our magazine subscriptions, for regularly using the post office, and for checking in with him every day.   That combination of humanity and “touch-able” mail needs to be savored, and saved, inside and out.