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Airports: Transportation, time and keepers of the textual flame

Posted by: | November 10, 2014 | No Comment |

One antiquated hand washes the other.

The only place I ever see people read magazines or newspapers is in airports.– Dylan French, founder of Nobody.com

At the risk of sounding trite, everything suddenly clicked.

This quote is a summation of the future. There will come a time when yearning for the “old days” of  journalism and print media will supersede technological advances. It may peak within the next 20 years, but it’s simmering now.

While some media outlets fade into virtual obsoletion, others reap the benefits of rampant nostalgia. People are slowly (but surely) asking “what happened to the time when” ?, print circulation is fighting an uphill (but borderline successful) battle and the masses are trying their best to separate from their mobile devices.

But the most dependable ally in this revival is the airport.

Photo Credit: www.flickr.com

Airports are the future of syndication. They ultimately reintroduce the idea of publicly reading a magazine or newspaper. Even though most of the readers are cranky travelers forced to spend countless layover hours with a bunch of strangers, they are readers nonetheless and syndication finds respite in their captivity.

It seems most appropriate that one antique innovation sustains another. Ironically, Orville and Wilbur Wright “once printed a daily newspaper together” and flight was once cast aside as a fluke. After achieving success, flight became the poster child for innovation. It is only right that this one innovation builds a support system against the vitriol of technology and provides an outlet for the syndication of the other.

Photo Credit: www.airport.kr

 

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