Not "Or" but "And"

In his September 14 post in The Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan announced he had a cover story -- an open letter to George W. Bush -- in the latest issue of The Atlantic. He also made "a simple request":

If you appreciate the magazine's decision to sail into the commercial winds on this subject, and to use the word "torture" to describe what was done on its cover, one way you can show that appreciation is by subscribing or picking up a copy at the newsstands. That helps remind editors in the fast-shrinking world of magazines that ballsy, public interested decisions need not be commercially disastrous.

The next week, The New York Times reported that:

Within two days after last Monday’s post, Mr. Sullivan’s appeal pulled in 75 percent of the subscriptions that the Web site draws in a typical month, the magazine’s publisher, Jay Lauf, said. The Atlantic expects this month’s subscription orders to be double an average month’s.

As a man of stature in both the Old and New Media worlds, Mr. Sullivan commands attention. His voice has resonance. No question but that print media -- battered and bloody -- could use more proponents like him.

We all need to be reminded that it isn't simply an "either/or" proposition, that print and digital media can coexist. New media doesn't supplant or supersede old media. The two can be complementary, symbiotic. Each is valid. Each is credible.

We need to get beyond a one-dimensional perspective, this conception of a Ragnarok between old and new media. Information (and art) isn't confined to a single mode or format. Literacy is expansive. Knowledge (and experience) is evolutionary, not exclusionary. The future is diverse.

People will (and should) keep buying books and magazines. Some things still belong in print.