Print 2.0

Will technology soon kill print?

It’s been a never-ending debate ever since the Internet

showed up. But perhaps that’s not the right question to

ask at all. Perhaps a better question to ask is this.

Has technology ever killed any form of media?

The answer is, quite simply, no. Sure, it’s changed the game.

But that’s what great things do. Change the game. Jackie

Robinson changed the game of baseball. Michael Jackson

changed the game of music. HeadOn® changed the game of

medicine. And now, the online revolution has changed the

game of media by forcing everything to evolve.

Just look at radio and television. No, they’re not nearly the

media monopolies they once were, but it doesn’t take a

surgeon to see they’re very much alive. Radio has evolved

into both satellite and streaming versions of its primitive

self, while television has morphed from the novel concept of

color, into online, high definition and now 3-D adaptations.

But unlike radio and television, the print industry hasn’t

exactly accepted change.

Unlike radio and television, print is dying. And the only

thing that can save it is the same thing digging its grave.

New technology.

But amidst a state of sheer panic, it seems a cure may have

finally been found – something to give newspapers and

magazines a 21st century shock, and breathe new life to

this dying breed.

At last, augmented reality. (AR)

Everyone’s seen it. Hell, sports television has been utilizing

this seemingly state of the art technology for years. Ever

wonder how that little yellow first down line gets projected

onto football fields? Augmented reality. Or how

that colored trail showing the exact location

and direction of a hockey puck gets there?

Augmented reality. And remember watching

Michael Phelps chase those virtual world

record markers during the Beijing Olympics?

Yep. Augmented reality.

But as useful as those ancient applications are,

they don’t even begin to highlight the possibilities of this

technology. They don’t even start to show how print too can

be enriched using a digital dimension.

Now imagine for a moment that this page was only half the

story. Half the interaction. What if there was a way to

connect this concrete piece of pulp you’re holding, with

something on the screen? Well, there is. And publications

and brands are finally starting to realize how the tangible

nature of AR lends itself perfectly to the printed page.

Not too long ago, Topps used AR to give its brand a quick

jolt. Users needed nothing more than a webcam, Internet

connection, and pack of special trading cards to interact

with their favorite baseball stars. Doritos® even brought

their sweet chili chips to life by printing AR codes right on

their bags. And MINI let users check out the all-new Cabrio

by turning a simple magazine ad into its own digital car

show. What augmented reality does so well is amuse and

entertain. Sometimes, sadly, for hours. It gives the audience

an extra avenue of interaction.

But most of all, it proves that print, when combined with

other technologies, can be the key that unlocks a unique

user experience.

Nothing shed light on this more than when

Esquire magazine integrated AR into much of

its December 2009 issue. It was the first time

the print industry seemed to truly embrace and

harness the new technologies at its disposal.

Some called it “the future of print.” Others

simply saw it as “a dying medium's last desperate grab at

attention.” But dying or not, one thing is for certain. Print is

far from dead.

And thanks to new technology, people might once again

have a legitimate reason to drop cash on magazines and

even, dare I say it, newspapers. Today it’s augmented reality.

Tomorrow, who knows? But like any form of media, print must

keep evolving if it wants avoid going the way of the dodo.

It’s the very process of evolution that Darwin spoke of ages

ago – a process that not only makes survival more likely, but

a species so much stronger.

written and art directed by

The Evolution of a Species