Peter Petrovski

By Peter Petrovski

Doomsayers have long been crowing that print is a dying medium. It is true that newspapers and magazines across the board have recorded their greatest ever decline in circulation and readership in 2009, and this trend is sure to continue. However print is only dead if we consider the product the physical page it is printed on - but the solid, rich content that print publishers produce will always be in demand. Good content is king.

In the early days of the internet, many predicted that it would eventually kill print as it provides convenience, immediacy and arms the consumer with choice that simply could never be achieved with the old paper medium - a medium that has been around since Gutenberg invented the printing press in the Middle Ages.

News media will always exist as there will always be a demand for it. Much like television is being consumed online more and more, news consumption is also moving to new technologies. As people subscribe to twitter and RSS feeds, engage with social media and move over to next-generation smartphone platforms, people will demand more and more content - good content - at the same level of immediacy that online provides.

Read More →

Online shopping has become so prevalent and pervasive that everyone from your mother to your mechanic is comfortable buying stuff online. Along with this uptake in online shopping, the online retail experience has grown more sophisticated and social, with personal recommendations based on your interests (Facebook, Amazon), Geo-location based mobile apps (Gowalla) and even iPhone apps that scan product barcodes and tell you where you can get the cheapest deal (Coupon Sherpa). 

While all this adds to the online shopping experience, the brick and mortar stores still have the advantage of the tactile experience of browsing, of mingling with other shoppers, of engaging in the physical space of the store, the sights, the smells. However, these physical stores have been left behind in the digital age, they don’t offer anything new and many are in danger of becoming extinct. 

However with the launch of products like Microsoft Surface in Australia, and plans to install them everywhere from telco stores to hotels, we are witnessing the beginning of the digital revolution in retail spaces. Rather than scribbling on bits of paper and trying to remember different features of a TV that you saw in Retravision when you’re shopping at Harvey Norman, Surface will allow customers to gather, sort and compare information on different products in real time - in a fun and interactive way.

Read More →