In An Age of Digital Dependency, The Revival of Print Magazines Is a Breath of Fresh Air

As digital media continues to evolve, print magazines are finding new relevancy, proving that in a world of fleeting pixels, the permanence of paper holds a renewed charm.

Four years after a pandemic that forced our phones into lifelines for connection, entertainment, and daily tasks, we’re more tech-dependent than ever. Essential contactless solutions that became the norm have paved the way for continued innovations in advanced Web3 technologies like AI and AR/VR that are increasingly moving our once physical actions into digital spaces (see our trend “Untact” in the July 2024 trends report).   

But the fatigue of being “chronically online” is catching up to people. The phrase “touch grass” has become a popular social media directive for anyone who appears to be spending too much time on the internet, suggesting a collective awareness of our need to disconnect from our devices and reconnect with the world IRL. In a fractured media landscape dominated by screens, print is making a comeback and redefining its value at a time when offline, tactile experiences are more cherished than ever.

Special Interests Thrive in Print

Over the past year, an increasing number of magazines have begun reviving print productions, including legacy publications like Playboy, which is set to reappear in print with an annual edition beginning in 2025, and Life, which will return as a regular print title thanks to a deal led by venture capitalist Joshua Kushner and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss. But special-interest publications may have the best chance of thriving; in today’s noisy media ecosystem fueled by algorithms that hyper-personalize our content, we’re used to consuming only what’s curated to our specific interests.

Beloved gourmet food and wine print magazine Saveur was discontinued in 2020 only to relaunch earlier this year after its 2023 acquisition by one of its longtime editors as a bi-annual publication made available via subscription or at selective specialty food and book/magazine retailers. For the first time in over a decade, music magazine SPIN returned to newsstands in late August as a quarterly print publication, following the likes of Creem, which returned in 2022 as both a digital magazine and a quarterly publication after a 30-year closure. On its site, which plays up nostalgia via fonts and interface design, one of the several t-shirts for sale urges, “Read Music Magazines Again.

Image via Creem

High-end outdoor magazines are also thriving in print. Mountain Gazette, a free-spirited publication on outdoor life from 1966, was purchased by journalist and film producer Mike Rogge in 2020. Propelled by his grievances about the current digital publishing model that relies heavily on affiliate sales and click-bait, Rogge revived the magazine as a bi-annual large format (11×17) publication — which since has sold out every edition. In sharp contrast to the relatively small-scale, 2D experience of most phones and tablets, the size of the pages alone requires the reader’s full physical attention.

Image via Mountain Gazette

The Novelty of Tangibility

These days, it can feel like a luxury to let a print publication break us away from the digital noise of our devices — with their infinite number of words and images — via curated content distilled into something finite. But paper magazines don’t just give our eyes and brains (and thumbs) a break, their tangibility gives us an entirely different kind of ownership over our interests — one that isn’t at the mercy of the impermanence of the Internet. The infrequency of these revived publications (mostly quarterly or bi-annually) allows the publishers to imbue them with novelty and quality, more like a collectible or coffee table book. In turn, they allow people to signal their interests and identity through a physical object that is ownable and can be displayed as a marker of taste.

Inspiration for Brands

While the resurgence of print publications is evidence of a larger need to balance out our digital dependency with offline activity, magazines aren’t the only remedy. Brands across categories can tap into this renewed desire for printed, tactile content on a smaller scale. Diversifying storytelling across digital and print mediums gives brands creative ways to stand out and engage audiences in an increasingly crowded digital landscape.

Take inspiration from fashion brands like J.Crew, which just this month brought back its nostalgic print catalog, or Elder Statesman, which plays with the format and style of mail-order catalogs in a digital format. In the beauty space, Chanel incorporated a small editorial booklet for its summer makeup collection that features stylized photographs of the products in use. And while no stranger to print, an August edition of the New York Times included special 12-page zine inserts commemorating the Harlem Renaissance centennial with a tribute to the underground press that flourished at the time.

Image via J.Crew

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