Why Bloggers Should Read Print Magazines

Everyone knows that print publications are shrinking. More and more people turn to the Internet to get news and read articles.

As the print media began its decline, blogging began to ascend to a strong position in the age of information sharing. Some blogs became the ‘mega’ sources of information, from news to op-eds. Huffington Post comes to mind right away.

It seems like people began to stray away from the mainstream media to blogs to get information as they began to see the strong influence of corporations on the news offered to the public. If it wasn’t grand or didn’t align with the corporate agenda, it wouldn’t be part of news coverage; or skew the news coverage by taking things out of context and looking at the issues from a biased perspective. Fox News comes to mind, but everyone is guilty; it’s just to what extent.

Why Print Edition

“I am presented with an organized collection of opinions, perspectives, information, and facts that are the construct of someone else’s mind, or a collection of minds. I am offered the chance to ‘discover’ news and information about everything from events to products, something that foraging for information on my own does not afford me,” Meskauskas writes about reading print magazines.

Some of those things might not be to your liking. But your world will be bigger as a result. And maybe something will not only be to your liking but also inspire passion.

Instead of searching for information across the web take a break from a daily routine. Pick up a newspaper or magazine and read it. It will offer you a broader understanding of the world, issues, cultures, and many other topics. Things you wouldn’t find because it was buried on the 15th page of search results or because the headline didn’t appeal to you. But having a physical copy in your hands, as part of your linear reading act, forces you to read it.

Making a detour on your information superhighway will show you something different, maybe from a different perspective, or maybe surrounded by different facts. But it will be different, even the simple act of feeling the paper it is written on might invoke a thought, a thought that a keyboard and/or a mouse would never invoke.

The act of reading printed publications binds you to someone else’s train of thought, which might inspire ideas you can write about. It will offer you some fresh ideas for blog posts, creative ideas for ebooks, or it might inspire you to create a new blog for a different topic you never thought you were interested in until you felt it in your hands.

Try It

I subscribe to several magazines as I enjoy reading them on paper, laid out for me in a specific manner. Also, I started a subscription to The New York Times last week. It was an interesting and new feeling having a paper at the door waiting on me in the morning.

Break out from your ordinary routine; pick up a magazine or a newspaper. Maybe go as far as getting a subscription to a magazine that you enjoy reading online. Try to feel it for the first time, see if your perception of the content changes.

Do you subscribe to any printed publications right now? Tweet me.