Print magazines vs. Digital media: which is better?

[fusels]

I don't prefer any, like both the same way.
I buy, for instance, Vogue every month but that doesn't mean that would fulfill me enough to not constantly check their website.
I prefer print magazines for keeping track of trends, seeing editorials and actually even reading long articles, altought when it comes to reading a review on, for example, the latest fashion show I'd rather go with the digital magazine (they've got more resources to explore). It is much more interesting to read an article about a fashion show when I can see all looks in a slideshow - what a print magazine wouldn't allow me to do.
They kind of complement each other. I couldn't live without print magazines as just I couldn't live without their digital version.

 

[SexySellerie]

In my opinion reading a magazine is some kind of ruminant.
You take your Vogue/Glamour/Elle/whatever, maybe you have a cup of tea or a glass of wine in the evening and you curl up in your couch.
In the evening you light a candle, you hear some lounge music and then you start to read your magazine. Turn page to page, and some stories don't catch your attention as much as others, but you devour your favourite magazine.

Like others said I don't think that digital media can ever substitute this feeling.
I can only speak for myself but computers remind me of work, of the speed of business. When I want to read somethink I wanna lay back and relax - and don't want to scroll down a picture

 

[caitlinand]

I don't prefer any, like both the same way.
I buy, for instance, Vogue every month but that doesn't mean that would fulfill me enough to not constantly check their website.
I prefer print magazines for keeping track of trends, seeing editorials and actually even reading long articles, altought when it comes to reading a review on, for example, the latest fashion show I'd rather go with the digital magazine (they've got more resources to explore). It is much more interesting to read an article about a fashion show when I can see all looks in a slideshow - what a print magazine wouldn't allow me to do.
They kind of complement each other. I couldn't live without print magazines as just I couldn't live without their digital version.

I completely agree. I believe that digital media supplements traditional media.
I love reading interviews, articles and seeing editorials in a magazine. It gives you a certain space, to take everything in. If i have seen an editorial online i will most likely still buy the magazine so i can see it in full, so i can process everything. That's the disadvantage of digital media for me, everything is so compact. It's hard to view a HQ editorial on your computer screen alone. But the digital media's constant update is what i need during Fashion Week, to see 'behind the scenes' exclusive and to livestream a fashion show. So for me i dont think one is necessary 'better', it really depends on your own lifestyle and what aspects of fashion you are interested in.

 

[KateTheGreatest]

I perfer the print magazines because I'm addicted to my computer and I need more reasons to get away from it, my eyes need a break some times.
But yeah, I love it when I lay on my bed, light candles, put death cab for cutie music on, eat chocolate, turn off the phone and just read, like SexySellerie said.
To me, this is a special feeling and I don't think anything can replace that.
However, I do love it when I don't have money to buy a magazine or wanna read just one article and it's online so I don't have to buy it.

 

[RaisinBoy]

I don't think that digital media can ever substitute printed fashion magazine. I guess the newspaper and such thing will disappear, but the somehow 'specialised' media will still occur in printed forms. I think the best form of a fashion media is to have a printed edition released every 3 or 6 months and a quick responsive digital edition with the news, reviews, style guides etc.

I mean, fashion is about the feeling of having a nice thing in your hand...

 

[giancinephile]

I'd still prefer print. I like the feeling of having a material manifestation of something to hold on to. And it's more convenient to read from paper over a screen.

 

[eugenius]

As long as there are little kids with school lockers to decorate, grown adults with office cubicles to spruce up, fashion designers with mood boards to pin inspiration to, I don't think magazines are going away anytime soon. Yeah, we can find, download and print those same images with computers, but it's really not the same.

I think there's room in this world for both to co-exist side by side to one another. For myself, with a lot of magazines, I simply don't WANT to have lying around, merely because the content doesn't pique my interest enough. US Vogue is a prime example. I'll read only a few articles, check out the edits, and kind of skim through the rest, all in the span of 1 day, then discard it to my coffee-table, only to collect dust and never to be seen or heard from again. So in this case, I really don't see any point in buying the actual magazine. The iPad app suits me just fine. But on the other hand, with Interview & the new W, I do read a lot more, take in a lot more, GET a lot more, so I don't see myself switching those magazines to their online version anytime soon.

 

[Vance]

Pros of print media: you can buy 1 or several issues and you can keep them or give them away or sell them.Also you can scan them to your computer and save articles that you want to keep.
Cons: Back issues of magazines are extremely costly,especially older out of print media.

Pros of Digital: easy and convenient to browse and download what content you want, some free options,available.But not all.
Cons of Digital: Digital Rights Management,licensing requirements to view content, from major publishers, even difficult to view content or print a page due to the same . you buy a license fee to view contents-limited times to read,usually behind paywalls/ provider's database access through libraries.

 

[blueorchid]

I feel like digital magazines just look ugly (inside) most of the time. I still remember early digital editions of Vogue Paris and the colours were so off. Even scanned magazine pages have a certain charm.

I've bought a lot of vintage magazines over the past two years from the 1960s and 70s and going through them just feels like an EXPERIENCE that digital magazine can't reproduce.

 

[Drusilla_]

yeah this is me with physical copies of The Face from the 1980s - going through one of those, even four decades later, feels like a more immediate connection to that era than a 'digital magazine' from 2020 to that year even though 2020 wasn't that long ago and I lived it! Things like the dimensions of the magazine, weight of the paper etc really do matter.

 

[tigerrouge]

Digital is a synthetic experience, print is a more organic one. It depends what type of experience you have an appetite for (or what you've become addicted to).

 

[Drusilla_]

^that's true, but I do feel like stuff I read on a website never really sticks, even when I think it's good (and I read a LOT on websites/digitally, you could justifiably call me an addict) vs print.
that's without even counting the impact of fashion imagery/editorials in print vs digitally (seeing a whole paper page at once vs the shrunk-down/cut-off versions loading on a website)