The Future of Publishing in the Eyes of an Expert

So print is dead and everyone will be reading magazines on some sort of "e" or "i" device by 2020. I would have more faith in anyone who makes these types of assertions if they could show me a prediction they made 10 years ago that has come true today.

In my never-ending search for the truth, I sat down with my 10-year-old daughter, Kayla, while she was skimming the print pages of the latest edition of Popstar! magazine and decided to ask her a few questions.

Dad: If you had to choose one or the other, would you rather read this stuff in a magazine or on a website?

Kayla: Probably the website because it's free.

Dad: Let's say it's not free, would you want to get it in a magazine or on a website?

Kayla: Probably the website becasue not getting it on paper would save trees.

I never knew I was raising someone so smart. She must get it from her mother!

Kayla probably should have quickly been told that dad pays $35 a month for a high-speed Internet connection so technically the websites she visits aren't free, but as the conversation went on to include a brief discussion about the differences between the content online as opposed to the magazine, her eyes started to wander to the poster of Justin Beiber on the wall.

So my daughter is not an expert, but the more I hear about how magazine content will be sold and consumed in the future, I just want to get more from the readers who purchase and read the content and less from vendors and "experts."