Here at Gambit Print and Gambit Nash we love to keep up with the latest news that is going on within the industry. But just how do you keep up with everything? Well there are pro’s and con’s to both.  In the ever expanding world of technology, we sometimes overlook the simple things in life, some of you remember the time where to get the latest news, it was either go and pick up a newspaper or miss out. But today you have an unlimited amount of news at the touch of your fingers. But which is better?

Magazines

Print Pros

The print industry has a wide and vast history, some say it goes as far back as 3000BC, now that is a long time, so what are the pros of print related media?

You buy, you keep – Whether you read NME, OK! Magazine or even if it is the Daily Telegraph, once you have handed the money over to the shop assistant it’s yours forever. You can share it among friends and family.

Simplicity – If you say you’re not an impulse buyer then you are very sensible, but for me I buy on impulse 99% of the time, weather it is in the local shop, or it is a Friday night and I fancy a take away a lot of what I purchase is all done on impulse, and magazines are no different. It is easy to just pick up a print magazine while you are out and about if the cover takes your fancy.

It allows you to disconnect – For a lot of people out there, you perhaps spend most of your day sat in front of a computer, so you may find after a long hard day at work you find yourself wanting to relax with a newspaper or a magazine instead of looking at the latest news on your iPad.

Print Cons

Can’t Keep Up – There is no denying that with buying a printed magazine/Newspaper that you are never going to be able to keep up to date with everything that is going on 24/7 if there is a breaking news article and you are sat at your desk at work, you can’t exactly run to the shop and expect it to be in the newspaper can you?

Reach – You reach can be very limited with printed magazines, due to the fact that most printed magazine purchases depend on subscriptions, whereas online you can have up to 20 million visitors because it is free

Little to no Feedback – With a printed magazine, it is very hard to find out what your audience like in your magazine, this is because you do not have a personal relationship with the viewer, whereas online media you will easily be able to see what people liked and didn’t like in the comment section.

Digital

Digital Media Pros

If you are like me I rely heavily on digital media, this is not to say that I do not purchase a newspaper or magazine every once in a while. Because I have so many device, it is just cheaper for me to use digital most of the time.

Cheap – A digital magazine is much cheaper, for everyone. It is cheaper for the business that create it and the audience, because most of the time you do not have to pay to read their articles.

Content – Your content can be bought to life online. Just ask yourself this one question, how many times in the past month have you seen an article online, with a video attached? This is because people engage more with videos than loads of text. It brightens your article up and grabs the attention of the audience.

Sharing – It is easy for anything to go “viral” these days, weather it is the funny cat video or a popular meme. This is the same for news articles, all it takes is one person to share your article and it can reach countless people.

Digital Media Cons

Attention– If you are like me, if an article does not grab you within a sentence I shut off, this means that a lot of viewers of your article could spend 30 seconds before they just switch off. You have to work a lot harder to gain readers attention online.

Legitimacy – With a lot of things on the internet how do you know that it is real? It is quite easy for someone to make up a false story about a celebrity online and get away with it, it happens a lot, as well as this how do you know that this is an original article? Like most things that are posted online you can’t stop people for using your work to form their own.

No connection – As a regular reader of online articles, I find myself never embedded into the story that they are telling me. I read online mostly for quickness, but nothing beats reading a story that you are engaged with and feel emotion from it, this is something that I never feel whilst reading an article online.

What Do You Find Better?

So what do you find better? Are you like me who is an avid reader online and occasionally buys a copy of NME on an impulse buy?

Or are you a dedicate reader of printed media? We would love to hear what you prefer and why.

And don’t forget to check out the links below, where there are a lot more pros and cons to Print Media and Digital Media.

 More Digital VS. Print Media Pros and Cons

http://www.prepressure.com/printing/history

http://associationmediaandpublishing.org/sidebar/Digital-vs-Print-Which-is-Better-For-You

https://detimination.wordpress.com/digital-graphics-for-interactive-mediamagazine/pros-and-cons-of-digital-magazine-print-magazine/

http://www.slideshare.net/Qube77b/printvsdigital