We’re back with the next installment of our series, the New J-School, where we examine the evolving nature of journalism in today’s digital age.

There is certainly no shortage of blog posts talking about the emergence of social media as a priority communication channel for news. Print magazines are dropping like flies due to declining ad revenue, and newspapers are investing heavily in their online properties as chatter of page views and re-tweets fill the newsrooms. We’ve recently dedicated a lot of virtual ink to the topic at Bateman Banter, because it is a crucial part of our daily activity. After you read this, you should check out this great post on the traditional vs. digital media battle that my wise colleague Amy penned after her trip to SXSW this year.

Most everyone agrees that social and digital media must be an integrated part of any communications strategy today. This is why rather than give that topic more air time; I’m going to take a different angle. I would like to celebrate print publications.

Perhaps this is going to make me sound like a fossil, but I ENJOY reading the paper, and I LOVE curling up with a good magazine. The content that I find in magazines, and my ability to truly consume and digest the information contained in them, is dramatically different than my online experience. When I am reading news online, I am quickly scanning headlines, clicking to see comments, and forwarding the good stuff along to colleagues or clients. Just as journalists need to break a story, I want to be the first to read the news and send around the most insightful stories with a dash of my own color commentary. Consuming print media, however, is an entirely different experience.

When I am reading the paper, I am lounging back with a cup of Stumptown, discussing an interesting article with my husband, or just reading in luxurious silence (ok so that is a bit of a lie, but only because the past 8 months my mornings start at 6 am with a silly little critter who isn’t old enough to care about the New York Times yet).

And magazines… Ahh they hold a piece of my heart. I save them for trips on the subway, stolen moments sitting in the sun with a refreshing glass of mint iced tea. Anyone with a baby knows that reading books sadly goes the way of the dodo, at least until your brain returns to a fully functioning entity, but diving into a well-researched, thoughtful article can mimic that transformative feeling that a good book can elicit. Reading a piece that a writer spent days or weeks developing– considering every word carefully, incorporating references and evidence to support a thesis, throwing in some drama and twists that make you turn the page to see what happens next– that is something to be savored, and not something that I can experience in 140 characters. These are not hastily crafted, grammatically disappointing news briefs, but rather well-written, thoughtful analyses of events, people, companies, services, or whatever.

In this warp speed, micro-content consumption world in which we live and work, we are so focused on knowing what is happening next, that we oftentimes neglect applying critical thought to what happened the day before, let alone what is currently happening.

So while I was reading one of my delicious magazines as my yummy son was taking a long nap, I saw this ad from the Magazine Publishers of America. As cheesy as it sounds, I became teary-eyed. The “Magazines, the Power of Print” campaign ad is below. Take a read. Granted, this is designed to reinvigorate magazine advertising, but I like to think it also serves as a reminder that there is room in this increasingly crowded, noisy media world for both mediums. I also hope it serves as a reminder to journalists that we still WANT that type of content; breaking news certainly serves its purpose, but a thoroughly researched, well-written story cannot be replaced.