A WORD is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.
-Author: Emily Dickinson

One of my favorite poems that highlights the power of blogs. Imagine that blogs are conversations, those worthless activities that pass the time, that are so common and used in every day ways…but now, those conversations are finding their way back into our consciousness, our awareness. The words in those conversations are no longer dead in print, but alive in a media that enables them to “stay alive” even though they are print. Print=dead, online=alive.

In conversation today, one of my team pointed out the value of print. “We need to send out print newsletters because no one reads online.” As I considered this perspective, I remembered past efforts at getting the word out. We’re all bound to each other via email, and so many people just don’t read their email…it’s too much, too overwhelming to wade through. . .so, they delete it, ignore it, shuffle it aside. Yet, print, now that’s the way to communicate. I still remember packing 50 copies of our print newsletter and shipping it to campuses…online is quicker, more convenient, but print is…print.

Tim (Assorted Stuff) shares this story:

…the excellent NPR program On The Media has a segment this week about a new dead-tree publication called The Printed Blog that will use material drawn from blogs, flickr and other content sites.

The first editions will target three neighborhoods in Chicago and one in San Francisco with plans to expand to New York soon. The founders hope that a combination of “hyperlocal” content with very cheap advertising (and a price tag of free) will be a financial winner.

Would this work in places where blogs haven’t quite taken hold, print still rules supreme? What do you think?

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure