A FEW NEW SHOOTS SPROUT IN A FOREST BLACKENED BY THE DIGITAL AGE
GUEST BLOG / By Sarah Grevy Gotfredsen writing in the Tech section of Columbia Journalism Review's The Media Today-- Print magazines weren’t expected to survive the digital age, yet they’re still holding on, if not always thriving. In 2024, several news stories highlighted a small but notable resurgence. Publications like Vice, Nylon, and Playboy, which had previously abandoned their print editions, began reviving them, albeit in limited runs. Print shifted from the default medium to a luxury item—a premium add-on for those willing to pay extra. And now, as Axios reported recently, even corporate storytelling is going analog, including among companies driving the digital revolution. Last week, Microsoft launched Signal, a hundred-and-twenty-page magazine targeting business leaders. The first issue includes an essay by Bill Gates; a Q&A with Satya Nadella, the CEO; and a lifestyle section at the back.
Steve Clayton, the vice president of Microsoft’s communications strategy, told me that he was inspired to launch Signal after reading an October 2024 New York Times story about the success of Costco Connection, a magazine that the retail chain launched in 1987 and is now the third-largest magazine in the country, with a circulation of over fifteen million copies each month. Signal doesn’t have quite the same ambitions in terms of reach, Clayton said, but it encouraged him to experiment with the print format. “We’re in this world where everything seems so ephemeral,” he said this week, while showing me the magazine on a Zoom call. “It was time to do something that was almost the opposite of that.” The magazine’s name is a nod to cutting through the noise.
The comeback of print—both in traditional media and corporate storytelling—seems driven partly by nostalgia and a craving for the tangible. In the words of Belle Cushing, who wrote about the resurgence of high school newspapers for CJR last year, print is “cool again”; one student said that newspapers have a throwback appeal, kind of like Polaroid cameras. Others said that they offer a break from the constant online news cycle and all-consuming apps like TikTok. (In an interview for yesterday’s edition of this newsletter, Kelsey Russell, an influencer who talks about the news on TikTok, described getting a print subscription to the Times as a revelation. “Our algorithms are aggregated to show us things that will make us pay attention, and many times those things are negative,” Russell told Yona TR Golding. “I realized when I read print, I would actually process what I was reading.”)
Older people are feeling the pull toward print as well.
Clayton said he deliberately chose not to publish Signal’s content online, as people tend to skim long PDF files. “We want this to be something people sit with, read, and cherish,” he said. If the first issue of Signal proves popular, the magazine will be published quarterly going forward.
Signal’s articles are written by a mix of in-house staff, which includes former journalists, and contributors from Delayed Gratification, a UK-based magazine that operates under the slogan “last to breaking news.” Indeed, faced with newsroom layoffs, journalists are increasingly pivoting to careers in corporate storytelling. The Times article about Costco Connection described how a cartoonist from the Oakland Tribune joined the magazine after relocating to Washington State (home to Costco HQ). Other migration destinations have included the Red Bulletin, a lifestyle magazine published by Red Bull Media House, which has a monthly print run of 1.4 million copies. Even Hinge, the dating app, paired with literary writers to produce No Ordinary Love, an anthology of dating stories meant to connect with a Gen Z audience.
Of course, the number of print magazines making a comeback remains limited. Airline magazines, for example, have mostly gone digital—a shift exacerbated by the growing availability of onboard Wi-Fi.
The final edition of Hemispheres, United Airlines’ in-flight magazine, was published in September of last year. As Lucy Schiller wrote for CJR at the time, it marked the end of an era. But, while the evolution of print may have branched off in a slimmer, less traditional, and at times more corporate direction, it continues to move forward nonetheless.
This CJR newsletter is a collaboration with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism.
