Print is dead

The Apple iPad was launched today, and I saw a posting on Twitter that said, “Print is dead. Say goodbye to all your magazines, books and newspapers.”

Well for starters, I can’t wait to take an iPad on the beach this summer so I can read a steamy romance novel while watching the kids frolic in the water. Right after I slather them in sunscreen and wipe the Doritos cheese off of my fingers and the sand out of the back of my shorts.

Or maybe I could take it to the bathroom with me to catch up on whether Farvre is actually going to retire after the worst pass in post-season history. Here, would you like to use mine.

I can't help but think, that sometimes people are going to want to shut down. Spend some time with a book. A real book, or a real magazine. Something they can line the bird cage with or beat the dog with when he gets into the trash.

I had a college professor that told me that print was dead in 1995. The internet and laptops were going to assure that. 15 years later there are still an awful lot of trees being cut down. Certainly the industry has changed, but not dead. And I'm not sure that an oversized iPhone is going to change much that hasn't already. When it comes down to it, the iPad is really the next generation of laptops and will be used just like one.

Beautiful? Yes. Brilliant? Yes. Print killer? Probably not.

What's your story?

I saw a motivational speaker the other day. Very compelling. His talk went something like this:

Imagine a movie where the protagonist wants a Volvo. He works and saves for three years and buys the Volvo. The credits roll and everyone gets up and leaves the theater. Not a very good story.

There is a girl that wants to drill 1,000 wells in Africa. She's college educated and everyone says that she's crazy. Huge corporations have tried this and failed. She is cutting through the red tape, she's raising money, she works long hours and makes sacrifices all along the way. So far she has drilled 70 fresh water wells. That's a great story.

The movie Friday Night Lights is about a high school team that, against adversity makes it to the Texas state championship game. At the end of the movie, they lose the big game. Probably one of the greatest movies ever made. What most people don't know about the team is that the following year they won the championship. So, why not make that movie? The movie about the struggle was a better story. It is our conflicts that define us. Getting the Volvo doesn't require a whole lot.

A man was having issues with his daughter. Her grades were falling, she was losing herself in a new group of friends that didn't have much ambition, and she was dating a guy that didn't have the qualities that her father wanted her to be associated with. He tried a heavy handed approach and it just made matters worse. The problem was that she didn't have a very exciting story. The story of her new friends was much more exciting. Rebellion, angst and the attention she got gave her a much better story line.

The father comes home one day and has a family meeting. He set up a white board and proceeded to tell his family that he had a crazy idea and that with all of his excitement, he had already committed to it. But, he had no idea how to pull it off. He had committed to building 5 schools in Africa and he now needed their help to pull this off. They started jotting down ideas and brainstorming on ways to facilitate this huge undertaking. The entire family got on board with his project.

Within two weeks, his daughter had broken up with her boyfriend, and after finishing her homework each night, she would help her father with the project. She didn't need the old story anymore. The one she had now was much better to tell.

What's your story? I hope its not about a Volvo.