Newspapers, Meet Your Nemesis: Say Hello to the 'Printernet'

Oh ye of little faith, rejoice! The dying breed of printed daily newspapers is not confined to finding new life online — there is yet hope that publications will be able to be made in smaller numbers, customized, and on-demand.

Certainly there are many experiments in self-publishing already in place, but the latest way to get your digital ink back onto the fully-printed page is through a newly defined,  publishing microniche — the printernet.

This hybrid blend of web content and printed paper comes as the advancing decline of the newspaper biz reaches its "media is dying" fever-pitched apex. In other words, the printernet arrived just in time to calm fraying journos' and publishers' nerves.

From The Printed Blog to Mine Magazine, these new forms of micropublishing seem barely more than aggregate RSS feeds fed through PageMaker, but they appear to be gaining traction. They're slightly cheaper to produce using fancy new digital presses and  more easily supplied with content courtesy of the ever-expanding internet universe.

Of course, if a printed page is still too mainstream, old school, or just downright plain for your liking, you could go even more micro — and even more indelible — by following Swedish magazine Tare Lugnt's lead and publishing just one issue...in permanent ink, tattooed form. Just hope there aren't any typos. And good luck finding a willing page/body.

Is this really the future of publishing?

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Tare Lugnt #3

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sourced by Truemorist