Where print’s prayers may be answered

The Power of Print seminar at Stationers’ Hall takes place this week, perhaps with a little more of a spark of revival in print than has been the case over the decade or so that the event has been running. In that time it has acquired something of a religious rite: those devoted to print come together once a year to renew their faith along with others that also believe in the Power of Print. Sermons from the front remind those listening that print delivers, if not salvation, then sales, market awareness and impact in a way that digital channels can only dream of.

Each year it can feel that the liturgy is repeated to the void. That despite the evidence to the contrary, those with the budget power have lost their faith, heads turned by the miracles that targeted email, social media and other styles of digital communication can supposedly deliver. Yet when these miracles are probed, many find that the claims cannot be fully substantiated. On the other hand by contrast, print can and is delivering if not miracles then the answers to a marketing prayer. The evidence that learning via a screen is not as effective as learning from a book is overwhelming. Educational books are coming back. Companies that dropped printed catalogues in favour of websites and online sales are discovering that printed catalogues are unmatched at supplying customers to those websites.

The world has moved on. Print is not returning to some prelapsarian paradise, or at least where it was before the world wide web. But just as the religious experience becomes deeper, richer and more sophisticated over time, no longer that of the school assembly but something that achieves a true understanding, so our appreciation of what print can achieve, of how it is effective and when to employ it has become richer because of the digital challenge. This makes the annual pilgrimage to the Power of Print seminar one to be anticipated as much as many look forward to religious festivals that fall throughout the year.