What does Social Media Mean for the Future of Magazines?

Just about every magazine currently in circulation has a website counterpart; subscribers of a particular magazine can now obtain all the same content online.  There's even more available on these websites, including message boards and reader-submitted blogs, customizable personal profiles, as well contests and giveaways.  Furthermore, these magazines also have iphone Apps and Twitter and Facebook accounts.  As a way to combat the Internet hype, the "Power of Print" campaign was launched (one of the advertisements is posted below.) All this social media activity raises one very important question: are print magazines dead?

For me personally, online content will never completely replace the print version of my favorite magazines.  Call me silly, but there's an excitement that comes with getting a crisp, new issue of Glamour or Women's Health in my mailbox at the beginning of each month.  While I wait in line at the check-out for the slooowwww people ahead of me to finally get out of my way, I busy myself by scanning all the magazine titles...more often than not I'll end up buying one (I'm guessing this is the epitome of an "impluse purchase").  There's just something about the tangible nature of a magazine-the glossy cover, flipping through the pages, dog-earing the articles I want to read, tearing out inspiring advertisements, etc.  You can't get that experience online.

For these same reasons, I will never buy a Kindle.  I actually get annoyed when people I hear people raving about them.  Some things are just meant to be touched with your hands, not clicked or scrolled through on some electronic device.  Sure, browsing a magazine's content online is fun and easy, as well as convenient.  Need to print a recipe? Easy.  Want to share an article with a friend?  Just link to it on your Facebook or Twitter account.  For people who are constantly on the go or checking their email inbox, it makes since to have magazine content available online.  But I definitely don't think this should make print magazines obsolete.

What do you think--what does the future hold for print magazines?

 Related Articles: The Online Journalism Review's "Future of Magazines: Net Could Empower Readers,"