Would sir like a book to go with his blog?

Hear that? Shhh. Listen. There it is again. A creeping, stealthy, resurgence of print formats. Silently returning to laugh in the face of online. Or more likely, hold hands and form a union towards cooperative working. Maybe I’ve had my head turned by digital too long, but I’ve noticed signs of a comeback for print:

• A friend’s blog will soon be available as a book. Hosted on Tumblr, A Lot Meant blogs progress on a Linligthgow allotment from dirt patch to harvesting the courgettes via double digging the potato patch. Come the harvest more than just the tomatoes will be preserved, as blog is converted to photo book courtesy of digital photo service Photobox.co.uk
• Photobox has bought Moonpig.com for £120m. When it was founded in 2000 few could have predicted the success of a company producing personalised greeting cards online. Surely in the future we’d be sending e-cards? Whilst the Kindle may have led to more e-books being sold than print, we still prefer a card in the post than a greeting by click of the mouse.
• And finally, another friend who works in publishing has a magazine idea. She has the skills to pitch it to a publisher, but prefers to test the water. So she’s turning to sites such as Magcloud.com which prints magazines on demand, and sells them online in both print and digital formats. They’ll take care of the production side – from proofing to print. If enough people buy a copy, she knows there’s demand for production on a greater scale. If not, there’s minimal time and cost spent on a launch.

All this goes to show that content is still king. It’s about making sharing content easy, whether that’s in print or online. But first you need content that is compelling and engaging. The place to find it is here.