Thumbs Up to the Grand Old Gals

Though I tend to buy business books (used) on Amazon, I visit my local branch of the Brookline library when I want new fiction to read.

It's less than 2 miles away, my little Putterham branch. It's way cheaper than what my husband does: he buys new books at Barnes & Noble. And lately, I realize that it brings me a sense of solidarity with the senior (that is, more senior than I) citizens of my town.

When I went there last week to return a book for Sylvia, my elderly neighbor who no longer drives (and who flagged me down on the sidewalk for this small gesture of good-neighborliness), I realized something:

It's the older generation who counts on this library. A steady stream of grand dames came and went. With a hefty stack of books tucked under their arms, they were on a mission - a mission to read. Sylvia is a former teacher who belongs to a book-of-the-month club. She had me return a bio on the Kennedy clan, and the new book she'd reserved was Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. Not bad for a woman closer to 90 than 80!

I swear to Pete, I had all I could do not to give each one of them an animated thumbs up, as if to say, "I'm with you, sister! I may work on a computer all day but I still love my local library!"

I tell you all of this during the same month that I bought my husband a Kindle as a combined birthday/anniversary gift. You see, he spends hundreds of dollars on books every year, because he inhales them - and never reads them twice. How many crime and action novels can one house hold? It's insane. And since our son has the same taste in fiction, they can both read these books on the Kindle.

Me? I will keep going to the local library and buy used business books from Amazon.

It's important having all of these options, as long as we're all still reading.

Where Print Fits, circa 2009

Here I go, starting a brand new blog that (I hope) will explain what the heck is happening within the world of print in this wild age of electronic media.

If you know me, you know that I've written a weekly enewsletter, "Margie's Print Tip," for 10 years. My goal? To help educate buyers of print about the glories of print manufacturing...and similarly, to enlighten print reps and owners about the needs and challenges of corporate buyers.

This year has changed everything. First, we have a recession. Jobs for print buyers are disappearing, as companies cut marketing/print spend, and as important, as new media gain popularity.

Don't hate me because I love these new media! I'm fascinated by the power of social media, and nowadays find myself a student of all things Twitter, RSS, blogs, Flickr, Facebook, and so on.

No, I haven't flipped and turned my back on print. Au contraire! I see an entirely new publishing/communicating paradigm, where print now fits into the modern ways of reaching customers, consumers, and one's market.

So I started this blog to share my ideas with anyone willing to listen - and contribute their own ideas.

Print, after all, is one tool, one technology, used to communicate. We now have a ton more options at our fingertips (literally and otherwise) to get our corporate and personal messages out.

If I have one word of warning for buyers and manufacturers of print, it would be this: don't be so stubborn that you fail to see the opportunities ahead. Saying hello to electronic media does not mean you must say good-bye to print.

I hope to explore the brave new world of changing media in future posts. Who knows where 2010 will take us!