I’ve just interviewed two people behind print publishing ventures that emerged from digital. I was interested in exploring what struck me as examples of digital reverse engineering.
The piece on Swipe – a fortnightly freesheet that promises to feature “the best of the internet in print” – and Porter – the bi-monthly glossy from online retailer Net-a-Porter – is over on the Guardian. This is how it begins:
The march of technological progress moves in just one direction. From analogue to digital. From standalone to connected. From print to online. That, at least, is the conventional view. The reality is far messier. And far more interesting.
During the first dotcom boom, I liked to invoke the counterfactual. What if the physical succeeded the digital? What if the virtual retailer came first, followed by the high street store – how would we have greeted the latter? Surely we would have celebrated our new ability to touch and feel – to say nothing of trying on for size – the clothes we were about to buy.
Carry on reading: From digital to print: the publishers bucking the online-only trend
Jon Bernstein 