Reaching the World through Magazine Printing

While our most common associations with magazines are as mindless entertainment, printed periodicals have a far more complex range. In reality, magazines run the gamut of the intellectual spectrum. Printed publications can be as lightweight as celebrity gossip rags to being as weighty as medical journals that communicate new scientific breakthroughs and discoveries.

In the medical community, doctors share new conclusions via journals. Here, the results of experiments, new surgical techniques, and successful procedural innovations can be communicated to peers. Journals have been the means for communicating fresh findings in medicine for decades, and they continue to be. Although online resources are growing, magazine printing remains the primary mode of communication for doctors and physicians to exchange ideas and announce new data.

Magazines can also be used to promote corporate interests, to communicate with potential donators, and reach small groups of people in hard-to-contact fields.

Industries and businesses use catalog printing and periodicals to sell seeds, get the word out on innovations, and share information from stock shifts to agricultural tips. In many industries, these are crucial ways to communicate information about new tools, technological developments, and manufacturing trends.

A recent movement is to reach a population for university donations is to have magazines printed to keep in contact with alumni and graduates. This serves a dual purpose: to inform alumni of upcoming and recent events and retain a relationship with graduates. In doing so, institutions of higher learning are able to maintain direct contact with potential donation dollars.

The breadth of audience for a magazine spans populations of large, heterogeneous groups to smaller, lesser-known special interests. Catalog printers create generic gossip rags carefully market to a wide audience of women from all economic classes and ages. Blurbs, snapshots, and "hooks" are splashed across covers to intrigue readers in grocery market aisles.

Niche craft markets reach knitters, spinners, bead artists, and quilters through the printed medium. Within these communities, magazines connect readership from small towns to big cities. In addition, these small artistic communities who may be less web-savvy may be reached via printed journals. From sharing patterns to marketing new materials, these periodicals have revitalized arts and crafts communities, bringing them to younger audiences and wider groups.

The magazine industry is a valuable tool for business. Through its use, industry, education, and community can connect via data and information. by John L. Carlson