Print vs Web or Print & Web?

First of all I'll apologise for not updating the blog recently.
It's been a hectic month or two both in work and at home.

Work is interesting at the moment, lots of different bits to work on, linking up with external companies to handle various elements of our business and also we have our in house builds to keep on top of.

We're constantly trying to think up ideas that will provide extra value to our customers and of course we want to make a bit of money along the way. As a newspaper publisher we have tried our best to keep up with modern trends and realise that we are now much more than a print publisher but an all round Media company. Print is still at the forefront of where we want to be and where we want to go, but our web offerings are really coming on and if we can maintain our momentum we can achieve great things I'm sure. We've got an enthusiastic and talented digital editor in Christian Dunn and in Martin Wright we have an editor who identifies the web as friend rather than foe, which breaks down a lot of barriers.

It's still tricky convincing a lot of people who have spent their life working with print that the web is an enhancement to our business, not a replacement, yet!!!
The web, should we use it correctly, should in fact drive readers to the paper and vice versa, afterall research shows that title websites have, if anything, a positive effect on print sales.

It's easy to blame the internet of course. In a climate that sees one medium decline and another increase you would think there was almost certainly some cross over. This is more evident with the nationals but still relatively unheard of as far as the regional / local paper is involved. The best way still to publicise in any town is a story in the local newspaper. And if you're selling advertising to local businesses, a lot of your clients still want to be able to hold that ad in their hands. Me included!!

It's an interesting argument, and one to which the is no definitive answer but I firmly believe in the sustainability of both print and web services running hand in hand for some time yet.

An interesting article can be found at the Times online.