News

Some publishers are reviving the printed word at a newsstand near you

Gia Clarke, Contributing Writer • September 23, 2024

Despite the decades-long decline in print publishing, print is making a comeback in mainstream publications, including The Onion and SPIN.

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center study, 58% of Americans prefer digital news, while only 5% prefer print. Looking at this stark contrast between the usage of mediums begs the question: Why are publications reviving their print editions?

“We’ve really found that people want a diversity in how they get their information, especially now that there’s so much information out there,” Salem Collo-Julin, editor-in-chief of Chicago Reader, said.

In reality, print never truly “died” according to Collo-Julin. It did decline in popularity when more people gained access to online articles. But many people continue to get their news through physical newspapers.

Collo-Julin said the Chicago Reader puts about 60,000 free print copies in their newsstands around the city every week, and all of them get picked up. Like many other mainstream publications, the Chicago Reader publishes articles on both its website and in print in order to grow its audience.

The Onion, a Chicago-based satirical publication, announced they would bring back their print edition a little over a month ago after Global Tetrahedron became the new owners. An executive said in a press release that print was “a superior vessel” for the company.

SPIN magazine’s CEO said in a press release that they brought back their print edition because “in today’s noisy digital ecosystem, print plays a fun and new role for all readers of all ages.”

Those who track media economics and publishing trends say that print is making a bit of a comeback because some advertisers prefer it.

Matthew Ragas, a professor at DePaul University specializing in media relations, advertising and communications, is one of them.

Ragas said that when digital media started to gain more traction about 20 years ago, many people thought advertisers would prefer running their ads on digital sites versus print.

“We would hear the phrase ‘trading analog dollars for digital pennies’ when it comes to the shift from print to digital advertising, in which there is an abundance of media space online vs the limited pages available to advertisers in a print circulation product,” Ragas wrote in an email to The DePaulia.

However, Collo-Julin is among those who have found the opposite to be true.

During the pandemic, the Chicago Reader shifted to publishing biweekly but returned to publishing weekly again this year. Collo-Julin said they were able to afford to do so largely because 100% of their advertising clients wanted their ads to run weekly in the Chicago Reader’s print paper. Print ads also pay more money than digital ads.

“There (are) a lot of compelling reasons for the advertisers to be in print versus just online advertising because the message they’re giving out lasts longer,” Collo-Julin said.

The biggest demographic of people who still read newspapers are 65 or older with 55% sometimes getting their news from print. But some young people still see the value in print.

Gush is a small, print-only magazine run by people aged 22-26 years old. It primarily features Chicago pop-culture, arts and music. Travis Alex is the 26-year-old founder and editor-in-chief. When Gush first started, Alex thought they would have an online presence, but the other editors all vetoed him.

“(The editors) are just like, ‘No, it’s got to be print-only. That’s the cool thing about it,’” Alex said. “And I’m like ‘What? It’s 2024, guys. What do you mean? We need to have digital,’ and they’re like, ‘No.’”

He believes print is coming back because people are overwhelmed with scrolling through social media and are longing for something with “finish-ability,” like a newspaper or a magazine. He does not think anyone is “actually reading anything online because it’s too distracting.”

“Instagram and TikTok are built on infinity. These are things that have no end,” Alex said. “I can sit and scroll literally forever.”

Collo-Julin said “your mind turns to jelly at some point” from reading too much information on your phone.

According to Collo-Julin, some people find reading a newspaper to be a relief from their screens because there are quick snippets with different sections and diversity in the news. In an algorithm like social media, people are only getting news that would be curated to them.

“A newspaper provides you with a certain kind of randomness that I think is important,” Collo-Julin said.

Alex said he is “personally fed up” with social media because digital publishers have not found a way to make people read anything past the headline.

“The problem fundamentally with digital publishing is that everyone’s much more interested in the comment section than the content,” Alex said.

In the future, Collo-Julin hopes people will read more — and in doing so, be more aware of what is going on, which she sees as a vital part of American democracy.

One of the major challenges Collo-Julin has found with publishing digitally is having to publish on a platform that ultimately does not care if their articles get lost in the slew of constant headlines.

“Google doesn’t care if people can’t get local news,” Collo-Julin said. “Google cares if people go to Google for news, and social media works the same way.”