The death of print

The first magazine was printed. The last magazine won’t be.

As printed publications shut down, some say good riddance, better that pages should move and talk and swipe and expand beyond themselves. For others, every closure is a unique tragedy, an occasion to mourn the passing of pages that can be felt, turned, smelled, sat on a shelf.

There might come a time when print magazines will only be made by social anthropology graduates employed to demonstrate our ancient craft, paginating alongside hand-spun wool weavers and earnest people rolling tallow candles by hand.

I hope I’ll be dead by then.

Peter Houston | Editor, The Magazine Diaries



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