The Internet Will Not Consume Print

Spin Magazine founder Bob Guccione Jr. has some insightful predictions on the future of print and media in general. He’s optimistic that print will not die, not go away completely, but instead transform itself into new forms. Imagination and radical new practices (like giving away major newspapers) is key, Guccione believes, and resting on the time-tested methods of the past will only ensure stagnation.

His thoughts on the Internet’s effect on print:

The Internet hit traditional publishing like the asteroid that struck the earth and killed the dinosaurs. But in the wake of that cataclysmic shock, we forget that the Internet is not a thoughtful entity. It’s a fertile ecosystem spawning a dazzling array of exotic flora, with the potential to improve mankind exponentially. It’s an infinite network of railway tracks, along which travel an unfathomable number of rail cars loaded with thoughts and information, some of the cargo precious, some worthless. But the Internet didn’t create any of it. It only delivers it.

Huffington Post: “The Future of Media: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying That the Internet Will Consume Print”