The power of print

Had to share this great observation about print as a technology, by Walter Isaacson, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute and former CEO of CNN and managing editor of Time. It's from an interesting book called "What Are You Optimistic About? Today's Leading Thinkers on Why Things Are Good and Getting Better," edited by John Brockman:

"I am very optimistic about print as a technology. Words on paper are a wonderful information-storage, retrieval, distribution, and consumer product . . . Imagine if we had been getting our information delivered digitally to our screens for the past 550 years. Then some modern Gutenberg had come up with a technology that was able to transfer these words and pictures onto pages that could be delivered to our doorstep, and we could take them to the backyard, the bath, the bus. We would be thrilled with this technological leap forward, and we would predict that someday it might replace the Internet."

Ha! I love it.

Comments

[Rick McCharles]

So print is not dead?

... guess I'd better rush out and buy some newspapers, magazines and books. See if I can stuff them into my luggage.

I've been deprived only with this laptop for WEEKS.

[Ron Shewchuk]

Yeah, but you live in cyberspace. Most of us still like to read the paper in the morning.

But don't worry Rick. There will always be a place for the Web to serve traditionalists like you.

[Emma Lambert]

There is still huge value to sending a high quality, printed magazine to the home of all employees. And print communications will never die in organisations where there is a large number of employees out in the field!

[Ron Shewchuk]

I couldn't agree with you more, Emma. Too bad so many organizations have abandoned this important channel in favor of throwing everything online.