As a person who makes a living by stringing words together, I’m always curious about the changing mediums by which people record, consume, and preserve words. As technology advanced over the last ten years, some magazine, newspaper, and book publishers were squeamish about being phased out. Studies began to show that indeed newspaper readership was declining, but some of the biggies took a chance and went online early—drawing revenue from advertising rather than direct subscribers. Smaller newspapers were more hesitant to put their content online for all to read without any sure way to recoup their costs.
About a year ago, the Newspaper Association of America, studied “audience demographic and online data from Scarborough Research, Nielsen/NetRatings, and to a lesser extent, The Gallup Organization” that included print and online readership from 100 major newspapers around the country. According to the NAA chairman, newspapers “are no longer touching 55% but closer to 75% of all adults.” So, considerably more people are reading the news—but a certain demographic is choosing to read it online. Online ad revenue has increased by 20% to 30% to offset the shifting readers. And at the moment everybody is happy. Newspapers are still financially viable and newspaper readers are happy because they are getting to read news via their chosen method.
You might also remember how concerned people were when e-mail became the preferred written method for keeping in touch. Handwritten letters largely became a thing of the past. Journaling software followed, and people seemed to fear that handwritten journals and notebooks would become obsolete. I was more concerned that people wouldn’t preserve their electronic words as well as generations have preserved them in the past and I wrote about it here.
Along came the resurgence of Moleskine notebooks. Walk into any Barnes n’ Noble or Borders and you’ll find an entire shelf devoted to these delightful creatures. People are handwriting their thoughts again and they care enough about preserving their words that they are purchasing these sturdy notebooks with acid-free paper. And you know what’s really funny? Now people are setting up topical blogs dedicated to Moleskine notebooks and various other notebooks.
Technology isn’t ruining the written word. It’s giving people more options to record, consume, and preserve words. And regardless of where people stand in their broad spectrum of personal choices about such things, logophiles (lovers of words) everywhere are thrilled.
