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Print fashion
magazines have long been a guilty pleasure of mine. There’s nothing like
sitting down, opening a good magazine and becoming lost in its pages. I love
the smell of them, the sound of their pages turning, the feel of their paper
between my fingers, and the way they look on my coffee table… To me they have
all the senses covered!
Whilst I
believe there will always be a place for print magazines, I’m closely following
the discussion surrounding their future because I’m interested to see how they’ll
be affected by the uprising of digital media. My viewpoint in a nutshell is
that one is not necessarily better than the other. I appreciate and embrace both
print and digital media, but recognise that they offer different reading
experiences.
In a recent
interview for The Age, former editor at Russh magazine and now
contributing editor at Oyster magazine, Stevie Dance, was asked whether she
thought websites, blogs and online publications would eventually overshadow our
lust for glossy magazines. She responded by saying:
"I
hope not. I think that they serve very different purposes. I think it's the
same thing as saying, 'Why do you go to the movies when you can watch it free
online at home, why do you go to a concert when you can download the song?' I
think that all those different narratives of how we interact with creative
forums are valid and I don't think one takes over the other."
The dynamic
of the media industry and the ways in which we access information is most
definitely changing. We are no longer limited in choice and people are reacting
to this change in different ways.
Household
publications such as ‘Vogue’ are now concerned with the upkeep of their brand
and with maintaining relevance. With so many platforms now available, it's about
setting themselves apart from the clutter and offering something unique. What
can their print magazine offer readers that other online publications can't?
Former
editor-in-chief of Vogue Australia Kirstie Clements touched on this in a recent
interview with Pedestrian TV. She spoke of the importance of maintaining
credibility and how they use their access and their knowledge to set their
magazine apart from blogs and other publications.
She also discussed
the ways in which they distinguish Vogue Australia’s magazine from Vogue
Australia’s website:
"...from
the beginning we had to start to work out what is website news and what is
print news...what kind of layers do we put on the stories in print to make them
more significant than the things you would pop up online...You just have to
sort out the priority of how fast the message goes out and how deep the message
needs to be. Obviously deeper in print and more newsy and bitty for spontaneous
media."
With Kirstie’s
words in mind, the choice between digital and print depends on the value one
places on content. Often what you find online are mere regurgitations of press
releases and the promptness of updates means they lack analysis, depth,
imagination and original point of view. Online blogs and magazines often get
caught up in being first and thus pay less attention to detail. It’s
more about publishing something before everyone else does than publishing
something of a higher quality. In print magazines however, a lot of thought
goes into the content, the layout, the voice, and the images. The articles are
drafted and then re-drafted and then edited until they are deemed worthy of
going to print.
An array
of print fashion magazines still exist, many of which have not created online
versions (e.g. ‘Lula’, ‘Indie’ and ‘The Gentlewoman’). Print magazines continue
to be popular within the fashion industry and are still considered very
relevant - even those that are only issued quarterly. Some magazines are now being
printed with hard covers, opting to look more like books than traditional
magazines. ‘Grey’ and ‘Self Service’ for example come with hard covers and look
lovely alongside my coffee table books. Something as simple as a hard cover can
make a magazine longer lasting and more special than the digital alternative
and as time goes by, I believe it will be more important for print magazines to
place this greater emphasis on being something you keep / treasure.
When
discussing the relevance of print media, one cannot underestimate the power of
nostalgia and the desire for something long-lasting. There are always going to
be developments in technology that will influence the media, but this doesn’t
mean the old will necessarily become irrelevant. For example, people still see
the beauty and purpose of records and choose to buy them over more modern
alternatives, even though they’re not as convenient, accessible, or cheap as
current technology.
Those with
a keen eye and a love of fashion photography will also stand by the fact that
photographs cannot be fully appreciated on the computer screen and are worth
keeping for future reference and admiration. Fashion photographers such as Paolo
Roversi, Tim Walker, and Venetia Scott, among many others, feature regularly in
established print magazines and just like art, their work is something people
will always refer back to.
This is
not to say that I am completely anti-digital. Being anti-digital would mean denying
the many advantages that come with digital media. I cannot deny that this
digital platform has given me the chance to share this article with people
other than my family, and so it would be silly for me to disregard these kinds
of benefits.
Digital is
opening up new opportunities for budding writers and journalists (I use these
terms loosely, as the blogger VS journalist debate needs a separate article all
together) to express themselves and to inform others. People are being given
the chance to hone in on their writing skills and develop a real voice online, and
the cost of print is no longer stopping people from being published.
Living in Australia means
living a great distance from the fashion Meccas of the world and in turn, a
great distance from the cities in which many fashion publications are based. Digital
media bridges this gap and means we no longer have to wait for access to many
international publications. They are only a click away and one’s financial
circumstance does not dictate whether they can or can’t have access – well, not
yet anyhow.
I have
been able to learn a great deal about the fashion industry through having access
to digital publications, as they are incredible resources in their own right. Whilst
I acknowledge the positive influence digital media is having, I do hope my dear
print favourites stand the test of time. In my mind, there’s just no way that
print could ever be entirely overshadowed by digital.
With that, I’m going to close the lid on my laptop and lose myself
(again) in the latest issue of Lula magazine. My hands, which suffer from self-diagnosed
RSI, will definitely thank me for the break.
