The Great Tech Retrograde

I’m timestamping this one. I’m not claiming it. It isn’t mine. I didn’t start the fire. I am calling it though. I have been for months, in fact.

Did you know new independent print magazine launches are up 15%? Yes, the print magazine market is growing. So is advertising. AdTechs have discovered that you are 70% more likely to remember an ad you saw in your own hands, a physical ad, than one you saw on a website or in digital advertising.

That’s wild.

You know what else is up after several (decade+) years of shrinkage? Book sales. Only slightly, but they’re up. People are also taking film photos again. Film photography purchases are spiking. So are purchases of vinyl records. Is it just the hipsters? Negative.

Sales of physical media like DVDs shrank consistently 20% year over year … until last year. The industry shrank just 9% last year, but that’s not even the most interesting part. Sales of 4K UHD DVDs were up 12%.