Why print is making a comeback

For as long as we have been in PR, we’ve been told that print is dying.

It’s true that as consumer and business titles have moved online, many have dispensed with printed editions altogether. The Audited Bureau of Circulation (ABC) reports that almost half of the magazines it measures saw their print circulation decline by 10% or more in 2024.

Yet look closer, and there are signs that this demise might be stalled – or even reversed – as a preference for print reasserts itself. 

For in one area of publishing, print is still holding out. Those at the vanguard include luxury, lifestyle, arts, news and niche interest titles where curated content is presented across glossy pages that offer a compelling alternative for digitally-overloaded readers. 

In the UK, a number of titles have been relaunched in print: from 1990s stalwart ID to the Eighties’ NME, which has also returned to a print edition. New lifestyle entrants like The Fence magazine combine print and digital in a convincing fashion. Likewise, food blog Vittles recently decided to create a print edition despite a healthy online following and a well-subscribed substack. Road Rat has a cult following among car fans.

Former UK Vogue editor, Edward Enninful, has just launched 72 magazine, saying that “while people say print is dead, I believe the opposite – print has become more powerful than ever.”

Even tech evangelists MIT Technology Review and Wired publish print editions. What does it say about a wider preference for print that publishers believe many, tech-savvy readers still appreciate a paper magazine over an app?

Of course, many consumer interest titles report a dwindling print circulation, even while digital numbers increase. Yet ABC found that Homes & Gardens’ print circulation was up 8% in 2024 to 51,432. So some titles are definitely bucking the trend!

Great writing, innovative design and high production values mean that a printed magazine can be a coveted, even collectible object – something that commands a high cover price and looks good on a coffee table. Many readers find print a more durable, tactile and enjoyable experience – and, as a result, copies of magazines sit on desks or languish by the side of beds for repeated reading.

That’s good for advertisers, because research suggests that over half (55%) of consumers trust print more than digital ads, Print advertising elicits stronger ad recall and response: surveys show 80% of magazine readers take action after seeing an ad; 25% seek more info, and 20% visit advertiser sites. Compare this to digital ads, only 4% of which are viewed for more than two seconds. Think about that: ‘one thousand and one… one thousand and OH.’

In some respects the resurgence of print represents a vibe shift, and one so pronounced that no less an authority than The Economist addressed the subject in the pages of a recent issue (of which it still prints 449,527, despite a healthy online readership).

According to this article, an increasing number of Gen Z – the first digitally-native generation, and one born to scroll – likes reading print magazines, as well as writing in journals and buying used clothes from Vinted. I can echo this: my 15 year old daughter values CDs over Spotify, and £1 charity shop DVDs over Netflix.

These media are durable, collectible and most importantly, tangible. Alongside the film camera and tape cassette (which never truly went away), and the ‘vinyl’ (likewise, although I dearly wish the misuse of its definite article would disappear), these formats provide some form of permanence in a world increasingly fashioned in the cloud.

The same Economist article argues that the newfound interest in print – and the wider return to the ‘analogue’ that it represents – is a reaction to AI ‘slop’. Maybe. But alongside a search for authenticity, it could equally be an attempt to raise the drawbridge and keep out the never-ending assault of information. 

Growing up in suburban England in an age before smartphones, I loved browsing the rows of magazines in newsagents on Old Compton Street and Wardour Street, where I would buy every single copy of ID magazine to access an exciting world far removed from home.

Now, as we struggle with information overload, and realise that the vast world available to us on the screen in our pocket doesn’t come without cost, perhaps a well-edited, written and designed and printed magazine is alluring once again – as much for what it does say, as what it does not.