Why Media Guides Remain Important, Pt. 2

The great rush to convert media guides into on-line documents overlooks many technical factors. What does one do at cross country? The e-guide breaks down quickly at outdoor venue events like softball, lacrosse, soccer, baseball and others where the press box infrastructure is limited, or non-existent. Good luck firing up the laptop in the rain, or whipping out the Kindle DX with the red-dirt blowing across the infield.

Durability is another. How many copies of the on-line guide, on common 20-pound xerographic paper will media consume during a basketball season?

These are the issues many who seek to defend the printed guide are employing. They’re valid, but they are not compelling – they are tactical at best.

The strategic reason why the transfer of the traditional media guide to the web site is doomed to failure is a complete disconnect on the purpose of the internet.

Print is less valuable because it is passive communication. A one-to-many delivery system that hopes to engage its target.

The networked media is the rising start because it is active communication. The essence of internet done right is engagement.

What I see out there is the functional equivalent of newspapers on-line, and the most horrible mismatch of theory to medium: page after page of static repurposing of copy and concept originally designed for flatland.

As surely as Edward Tufte encourages escaping the Flatland of two-dimensional printing with creative ways of expressing data, we cannot bring the two-format message – pictures and words – into the five-mode format – image, sound, motion, text and interface – of the current multimedia.

I bring up Tufte to counter with his oft stated position that there is no substitute for the high resolution efficiency of paper for delivery of information. He’s right, and more on that later.

Where everyone misses the boat is we are not simply delivering information through the internet. We are conveying a message, a brand; and we are building a connection. The internet is like some psycho-tropic substance that crosses the blood-brain barrier. It’s changed us, altered our perceptions, refired and rewired the consciousness.