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The fact that fashion weekly Grazia delayed its print deadline in order to produce an ‘insightful, authoritative and exciting issue’ covering the Royal Wedding, and that Hello! brought forward its publication to the 1st May, has made me think about the position print occupied during and directly following the Royal Wedding.
The Evening Standard went one further and published two special editions on Friday the 29th – the first time it has published on a bank holiday in 50 years – to ensure it competed with digital media in terms of news updates and to run the first images of that all-important “balcony kiss”. Many will say that Grazia, Hello! and The Evening Standard are shifting their deadlines and increasing issues to blatantly cash in on the nuptials, and while obviously true, I like to think that their approach represents a shift in the media playing field in favour of print.
With the boom in e-books and tablets, people have been quick to declare the demise of print, but this savvy manoeuvring of deadlines by these hugely popular magazines shows the power of print to be both an on-the-ball news provider and (still) the best commemorative medium. The Royal Wedding issue of Hello! is its biggest ever, incorporating a huge 60 pages of advertising. The large ad spend is a good indicator of the faith many still have in the ability of print as a powerful, and more importantly, dynamic communicator. Fingers crossed that, like the Royal Family’s cynics on Friday, print’s doubters were also swayed.