The Revival of the Print Magazine
Many young girls grew up watching romantic comedies where the protagonist is a young, independent woman living in New York City and working at a fashion magazine; which prompted a slew of aspiring fashion editors. Yet, as we have passed the days of the 2000s the interest in print magazines has faded with the introduction of technology, we no longer need to wait for a magazine to tell us what is trending when TikTok is always at our fingertips. Our favorite magazines have all switched to online, hiding their articles behind a paywall and the girls who idolized Andrea Sachs and Jenna Rink are feeling lost and yearning for the tangible, handheld experience of a magazine rather than the feeling of their computer mouse scrolling down the website’s homepage. We live in a nostalgic era, we love vintage, vinyls, digital cameras, and reminiscing on what once was. This is simply just another hint that the tech age isn’t satisfying its target audience anymore.
And magazines are taking note of this and if they aren’t, those girls are taking it into their own hands.
Print holds something that the digital age could never replicate; an experience. We are tired of living through a screen and ready to relive the days of face-to-face and in this case, pen to paper. Lara Violetta is a young, German woman who has taken it into her own hands to revive the print magazine, she has created her own magazine entitled ‘The Violet Papers’ which has already been covered by Vogue, Dazed, Grazia, and more. She is reminding those in charge of our favorite magazines that online simply isn’t enough for us. Physical media allows readers to connect more with what they are consuming, they are no longer being interrupted by twelve notifications telling them to log in to continue reading the article; it is more personal than the digital could ever be.
I am one of those girls who aspired to be a fashion editor and the revival of the print magazine is all that I have hoped for; it gives me hope for the future of fashion. Maybe this will be a wake-up call to the industry to inform them that we want more personal, tangible experiences again, and journalism is just beginning again. The return of the journalist taking notes in the front row at Paris Fashion Week was just the beginning of this revival, and it is clear that it isn’t stopping anytime soon.
We live in a digital age – so what?
