Anymore it seems to be an age-old question, “Is print dead?” As I spend most of my week working to publish a print magazine each month, my answer is “No.” I believe there’s space in the world for all the various mediums that exist: print, digital, movies, television, social media, music, the internet. There’s going to be something on each platform to interest someone. It, however, remains a point of debate in today’s increasingly digitized world, so I was intrigued to hear others’ points of view when I saw a “Future of Print” speaker series advertised, and I decided to attend.

The event was the second in the new Philly PR Girl Speaker Series. The Philly-based public relations firm welcomes guests into its headquarters each month to network, connect and participate in a panel discussion. The Future of Print panel included editors from Metro, Philly Biz/South Jersey Biz and Philly Current Magazine.

While the various publications were a bit more Philadelphia-centric than was necessarily applicable for Global Traveler, the consensus was universal: Print is not dead. And while each publication catered to a different audience, published on a different timetable, covered different content and even looked different, they all shared the same sentiment: To stand out in today’s world, you have to embrace what makes you different and consistently deliver high-quality content while keeping that vision in mind. Another point I found interesting: All the panelists agreed that in today’s age of digital everything, more publications are too concerned with being the first to report on something. The print medium allows us not always to be first, but to get it right (which most found the most important aspect of journalism), examine it deeper and look at it from a different angle.

Here’s to all the future holds for print journalism!

— Kim Krol, editor in chief