Its a fact that 100+ year old print media and related news publications have found it difficult to commercially survive in today's 'eat all you can' digitally connected, find it for free, tech and socially savvy world.

Its no secret that I've been around for sometime helping a number of the UK/US greatest Home Shopping, Retail and SaaS companies to grow. Why I even helped to move a 100 year old mail order company with 64 different trading titles into the world of eCommerce, but that was several years ago now and things have changed quite a lot!.

With the growth of 'free to use' social platforms we've all been given a voice to talk about, and share our passions and interest, which for some has even meant growing some very niche lifestyle businesses by connecting into, and growing their own communities with shared interest. 

So now 'Bobby from Sheffield' can tell you how to make your own Knives and Forks (out of your old ones) in the same manner as the big Sheffield manufacturers did in the heyday. Same as 'Jenny from Shetland' can tell you how to make Vintage Outfits out of your old clothes and curtains. Or 'Pauline from London' can show you how to make amazing bunches of flowers out of wild ones growing out of local hedges.

The common denominator between the success or otherwise of traditional printed media and their contemporary competitors has always the been the style and quality of journalism, from the 'Red Tops, to the Broad sheets, to the glamorous magazine world of Cosmo, Vogue, Good Housekeeping, Sports Illustrated and so on.   

What we need to remember is that all of those traditional major news organisations, along with other magazine monoliths who are now scratching their heads to understand 'how to survive' in this post advertising apocalyptic world they created, were actually one of the first businesses to set foot (and shoot themselves in it) on the digital equivalent of the 'new world' called the internet. 

This is because they already had content, lots of it, they already had the resource and infrastructure for creating, generating and pumping this stuff out so why not just move it onto this 'internet thingy', and with that initiative the dreaded banner ad was also born, and intrusive advertising overload followed sharply behind it. 

Now I don't know about you but I consume an awful lot of different types of content, intrusive ads really piss me off so I'm happy to pay for access to good quality content, this includes Movies, Sport, and of course Music. 

What I'm genuinely struggling with is the whole access to 'entertainment' subscription model, its already screwed, that's why in the US 'cord cutting is at unprecedented levels, and in the UK subscriptions to Sky are dropping though the floor because even with the £100+ per month fees we're still bombarded with those unwanted adverts.

I don't profess to have all the answers, I just know that if I subscribe just '$5 a month' to every content feed I'm into I'll very quickly start to 'unsubscribe' as that will run into the 100's of ££££$$$$, and where will the producers of great content be then?.

So I read with delight and intrigue that there are now a number of 'start-ups' who still see the value of printed catalogues (link below) and I have to applaud them, along with wishing them all the best.

But I just hope they also use the medium for something more than just filling the pages with product - something ASOS managed to change back in the day.

"Today the paper catalog has become primarily a marketing tool — one of special importance during the holiday season. And for many, it remains an important sales channel. The most sophisticated retailers are continuously working to build a seamless omnichannel operation and experience that uses catalogs, websites and physical stores seamlessly and interchangeably to help customers shop and make purchases".

So ,just like the doom mongers who were applauding the death of physical media (still a $10bn+ business by the way) and then Vinyl found its way back into the mainstream, we need to learn that its the consumer who's in charge of how they want to interact with a brand, and if a brand can innovate a commercial way to do this in a way that works for all parties then we might just get somewhere.