Today 944 magazine, a free, monthly purveyor of trendy food, wine, night life and entertainment announced its official closing. The magazine failed to regain its balance after a 2010 Super Bowl scandal that forced the publication to declare bankruptcy.
Though its demise was result of some poor budgeting and financial forecasting, I mourn the loss of any print publication. Every day, more print publications shrink or fold (pun intended) to financial shortcomings as subscriptions and patrons fade away. Nonetheless, the art of writing perseveres, and where one print publication disappears, a new Internet outlet emerges.
Like a stream forging through the earth, writing will always find a path, regardless of how difficult the terrain.
Even though electronic content supplements and replaces the loss of a magazine, the satisfaction of grasping a tangible booklet can never be eclipsed by any blog or website.
There is a commercial for one of the reader tablets - Nook, iPad or Kindle - that juxtaposes a girl defending the therapy of reading with a book against a guy supporting the convenience of a tablet. Each argument the girl suggest to protect books (and thereby print publications as a whole) is trumped by the advantages of a tablet. Her final case is that no electronic copy grants readers with the satisfaction of folding a page to mark his or her place; immediately she acknowledge the triviality in her argument and reaches for his tablet.
... but I find that to be a valid point.
Am I the only one that finds half the pleasure in reading to be the act of running my fingers through the pages? I mourn the loss of any print publication because it marks yet another fallen kingdom within the printing empire.
R.I.P. 944
[If anyone can please share with me the YouTube video for the ad, I'd be very appreciative!]
No comments:
Post a Comment