For years, marketers have treated print as if it were a channel being slowly replaced by websites, social media, apps, email and every new digital platform that followed. The assumption was that if audiences were moving online, every brand experience eventually would too.
And yet, some of the world’s most sophisticated brands continue to invest in beautifully made magazines.
Luxury hotels place them in guest rooms and lobbies. Universities publish them for alumni. Healthcare organizations mail them to patients, donors, physicians and communities. Membership organizations send them to millions of readers. Lifestyle and luxury brands use them to tell stories that can’t be scrolled past.
The most successful brands understand that not every consequential brand experience should happen on a screen.
Print creates something digital cannot
There is the weight of the paper, the rhythm of the pacing, the photography, the typography, the feel of a page turn and the quiet invitation to spend time with a story. A beautiful magazine creates a different state of attention. It asks readers to slow down, to linger. To engage without a notification interrupting the moment.
Digital content is often consumed in fragments, but print is experiential. Print provides context. The difference in a fragmented versus a contextual experience creates a real opportunity. In a media environment defined by speed, feeds, alerts, tabs, algorithms and multitasking, print offers something rare: intentional attention. To be clear, we’re not talking about print as anti-digital. We’re talking about it as a counterweight to digital.
The data supports the idea that print continues to serve as a force. Magazines remain a powerful part of the American media landscape. A 2024 News/Media Alliance report, using MRI-Simmons data, found that magazine media had a print and digital audience of 223 million American adults, and that 87% of U.S. adults had engaged with magazine media in recent months. Just as importantly, magazine readership is not limited to older audiences. The same report found that 89% of 18- to 24-year-olds had read print and digital magazine media in the prior six months.1
For marketers, this is useful to know. Gen Z, the young and digitally literate generation, is not rejecting print. In many ways, Gen Z is helping make print feel fresh again.
Gen Z is predominantly digital, but it’s not all they want
Gen Z grew up with all things digital—smartphones, social platforms, streaming, short-form video and always-on access to information. But fluency in digital culture is not the same as wanting every experience to be digital.
In fact, many younger consumers are embracing analog experiences precisely because their daily lives are so screen-saturated. They buy vinyl and collect physical books. They make zines, use film cameras and decorate with coffee-table magazines. They participate in BookTok, where physical books often function not just as reading material, but as aesthetic objects and social artifacts.
Print gives younger audiences something digital is often unable to provide: texture, permanence, ownership and calm.
Pew Research Center’s 2026 analysis of U.S. reading habits found that print books remain the only book format used by a majority of Americans. Their October 2025 survey revealed that 64% of U.S. adults said they had read a print book in the past 12 months, compared with 31% who had read an e-book and 26% who had listened to an audiobook. Among adults ages 18 to 29, 66% had read a print book in the past year.2
The numbers complicate the stereotype that younger audiences only want screens, suggesting instead that younger people are comfortable moving between formats, and they often choose print when the experience calls for focus, feeling or depth.
The American Press Institute and the Media Insight Project found a similar willingness to pay for serious media experiences among younger audiences. In a survey of Americans ages 16 to 40, 28% of Gen Z and millennials said they pay for print or digital magazines, print or digital newspapers, or digital news apps, while 38% said they actively seek out news.3
Brands shouldn’t operate as if the opportunity is to force print into a digital world. The opportunity lies in understanding why print feels different inside that world.
The return of intentional media
For years, the marketing conversation centered on convenience. The more frictionless, immediate and measurable a channel was, the more valuable it seemed. Digital media delivered enormous advantages, including speed, personalization, searchability and real-time optimization. Those advantages are still significant.
Consumers have not stopped wanting richer experiences, but they are craving balance. After years of digital acceleration, audiences are drawn to media that takes a beat, is tangible and feels more deliberate.
This is why print continues to thrive in environments where brands want audiences to pause and engage. In airport lounges, travelers flip through premium publications while they wait. In healthcare settings, thoughtfully crafted publications provide reassurance and education. In alumni and membership communities, magazines reinforce belonging and identity in ways that an email rarely can.
These are environments where attention, emotion and experience matter just as much as information.
| What Digital Does Best | What Print Does Best |
| Provides speed, utility, updates, search, personalization and measurable action | Creates immersion, credibility, sensory memory, depth and a premium brand moment |
| Helps audiences transact, navigate, compare, register, click, save and share | Helps audiences slow down, reflect, discover, trust, remember and feel connected |
| Works especially well for immediacy and conversion pathways | Works especially well for storytelling, brand-building, loyalty and high-value audiences |
The strongest brands balance both, designing ecosystems where each channel does what it does best.
Print builds trust in a low-trust digital environment
One of print’s greatest advantages is that it often feels more curated, more deliberate and less intrusive than many digital experiences.
Digital advertising appears in crowded environments where consumers have learned to scroll past or distrust what they see. Print, by contrast, benefits from scarcity and context. A magazine has a beginning, a middle and an end. It arrives with a sense of intention.
MarketingSherpa’s survey of 1,200 U.S. consumers found that print ads were the most trusted advertising channel in that study, with 82% of consumers saying they trusted newspaper and magazine print ads when making a purchase decision.4 The study is older, but the underlying insight remains relevant. In an environment where many digital ads are perceived as intrusive or low value, print can add credibility just by appearing in a trusted editorial context.
Magazine-specific data reinforces this. The News/Media Alliance reported that 57% of adults say ads in magazines fit well with the content, and that 78% of magazine readers who see an ad in their magazine take an action as a result. Those actions include looking for more information about a product or service and visiting the advertiser’s website.1
That last point is essential, that print does not have to be isolated from digital performance. In a well-designed ecosystem, print can drive search, site visits, QR scans, social follows, subscriptions, event registrations, donations, referrals and purchases. Print creates the emotional and trusted moment, while digital captures the next action.
The brands that excel at experience never stopped believing in print
Look closely at the organizations that continue investing in exceptional magazines—YETI Dispatch, Harley Davidson’s The Enthusiast or Patagonia’s Journal. These organizations share a common goal. Rather than just distributing information, they are building relationships.
We’ve seen this firsthand in our work across healthcare, travel, financial services and more. In our work with Four Seasons Magazine, personal essays, destination features and world-class photography brought readers into the brand’s distinct perspective, with features on travel, style and culture. Unlike digital content designed for speed and searchability, the magazine allowed readers to linger. That unhurried experience made space for emotional engagement. It helped turn inspiration into intent and intent into bookings.
This opportunity for connection helps explain why many established publications are revisiting print after years of digital-first strategies. In 2024, Nylon returned to print after a five-year hiatus.5 The same year, VICE relaunched its magazine as part of a broader brand revival.6 Such decisions reflect the growing recognition of print and its ability to offer a premium, high-engagement experience.
We’re not saying that every brand needs a magazine. The lesson is that when a brand has the right audience, the right story and the right standard of execution, print can do work that no other channel does as well.
Why audiences still love print
Audiences still love print because some human preferences have not changed. People still appreciate beautiful design. They still enjoy stories that unfold at a different pace. They value objects that feel thoughtfully crafted and respond to brands that make them feel known, inspired or included.
People value these experiences that let them step away from screens without disconnecting from culture or inspiration. This is especially important for Gen Z, although not limited to Gen Z. The desire for less noise and more meaning cuts across generations. Older audiences may value print for habit and trust, while younger audiences may value it for tactility, aesthetics and focus. Across generations, print works when it feels purposeful.
The crux is that print is distinct. It has a role because it creates a different kind of brand encounter. It’s slower. It’s deeper. It’s more sensory, more trusted and more memorable.
Print and digital are not competitors
This is the moment where many marketers get the story wrong, thinking of the future as print versus digital. Digital’s strength is that it excels at immediacy. Print, on the other hand, excels at immersion.
Digital delivers updates, personalization and convenience. Print delivers storytelling, craftsmanship and depth. Digital helps audiences act now, and print helps them care enough to act. The goal is to build an editorial ecosystem where every channel contributes something unique.
“Print versus digital” is a false binary, and unproductive. The most effective brands ask what kind of experience the audience needs, and which channel is best suited to deliver it.
Some stories deserve more than a scroll
For over 50 years, Pace has created beautiful print magazines for brands that understand the power of storytelling. Our print work has never been about ink on paper. It has been about attention, trust, design, editorial judgment and the ability to make audiences feel something.
Those qualities are more valuable now, not less. In a world overflowing with content, a well-made magazine signals care. It tells readers that the story was worth printing and placing in their hands. It creates a moment that cannot be swiped away. It gives brands a physical presence in the lives of the people they most want to reach.
Luxury brands, hospitals, airlines, universities, membership organizations—and their audiences—still love print because it still does something powerful.
It slows people down and earns attention. Creates trust. Makes stories feel worth keeping.
The future is not print versus digital. The future belongs to brands that understand what each does best and use them to create richer experiences, because both are part of the journey.
References
1 News/Media Alliance, “Nine in Ten Americans Engage With Magazine Media, Most Take Action on Ads in Magazines: News/Media Alliance Report,” September 24, 2024.
2 Pew Research Center, “Americans still opt for print books over digital or audio versions; few are in book clubs,” April 9, 2026.
3 American Press Institute, “How the news topics Gen Z and Millennials follow relate to paying for and engaging with news,” November 17, 2022.
4 MarketingSherpa, “Marketing Chart: Which advertising channels consumers trust most and least when making purchases,” January 17, 2017.
5 Digiday, “Why Nylon Is Bringing Back Print,” April 16, 2024.
6 Adweek, “Vice Debuts a Subscription Product and Relaunches Magazine,” September 24, 2024.
