on refuting the line that "print is dead"

I have so many draft-posts that will soon appear here (backdated), but before I get to those, some breaking news. From the New York Times:

Condé Nast plans to announce this morning that it will close Gourmet magazine, a magazine of almost biblical status in the food world; it has been published since December 1940.

There's been a lot of talk very recently about whether print is dead—the Village Voice a few days ago ran the front-page headline "PRINT IS UNDEAD"—and major magazine closings like this tend to add fuel to the fire. Condé Nast has been going through some significant changes as a company, but Gourmet's folding should not be taken as symptomatic of the print industry as a whole.

According to MinOnline and MrMagazine, last month (September 2009) saw the launch of 71 new magazines, 18 of which will publish at least quarterly. While major companies might be unable to support offshoot ventures (which may include magazines), small companies and independent presses show no sign of slowing down publication.

Gourmet might be gone, but print will undoubtedly continue to live on.