The Question Journalists and So Many Others Keep Asking: Will It Be In Print?

This is my second time around at FORBES. I left in 2000, four years after I began, to work for AOL and join the early ranks of digital journalists. With 26 million subscribers it was the place to be. Eight years later I founded a news startup that FORBES invested in and then bought. I came back as chief product officer, largely to help reinvent Forbes.com. Imagine my surprise, only days into the job, when Tim Forbes asked me to redesign this magazine. I remember that moment every time I get the question "Will it be in print?"

It's what all staff writers want to know. Most of our digital contributors do, too. Reporters hear the question when they're interviewing business leaders or whomever. Many people try to make it a quid pro quo for talking to us. Job applicants, even digital natives, also ask. The rich and famous, including those on this year's billionaires list, are no different. Nearly everyone who engages with FORBES wants to know if they'll be in print.

Click to EnlargeMaybe it's because they know our magazine's readership is higher than ever. Maybe the Web is too ephemeral to offer the validation conveyed by the printed word. Maybe photos, so prevalent on social networks, are more powerful on paper.

These are challenging times for newspapers and magazines. The data tell me the news business has an advertiser problem more than a readership problem. That can change if marketers are offered innovative and appealing opportunities. Last issue we highlighted a BrandVoice story on the cover, breaking one of the industry's "last taboos." Since then we've received dozens of inquiries from ad agencies about similar native ad placements.

There may be something more basic to the universal need to be in print. When I respond to the question by asking, "Why does it matter?" here's what I often hear: "So I can show it to my mother."

Note: This is the printed page my mother would see.