Today, many companies focus on email marketing, blogging, video and social media marketing to raise brand awareness, increase website traffic and boost sales. The one medium that is largely overlooked is print media.
It makes sense; according to Statista, revenue for the U.S. newspaper industry shrunk by about $4.5 billion between 2011 and 2018, and respected publications such as The New York Times and The Washington Post have had extensive layoffs. This downward trend is predicted to continue in coming years, and some publications have resorted to putting their content behind paywalls to survive.
Just because the future of the newspaper industry is grim, marketers don’t need to forsake print in 2025. Print provides incredible marketing opportunities that digital cannot, and will not, ever be able to offer.
Why print?
The value of print media
According to MarketingProfs, 92% of 18- to 23-year-olds find it easier to read print over digital content and the response rate for direct-mail marketing is 37% higher than the email rate. When making purchasing decisions, consumers trust print advertisements 34% more than they trust search engine ads.
Print media is not going away anytime soon. In fact, it’s an effective way for marketers to stand out from their competitors and attract audiences. The following are reasons why marketers should still be investing in print in 2019.
You can get a higher ROI.
The payoff for print ads is often higher than digital ones. People keep print publications in their home, re-reading articles or sharing with others. When those publications live in doctors’ offices or other public spaces, they get a longer shelf life and will be seen by more people. When people see ads online, they may forget them in an instant. If they see them repeatedly while flipping through a magazine, that message is more likely to stick.
You can reach multiple generations.
People think that younger generations are so addicted to their screens that they’re no longer reading print. But looking at statistics, the opposite is true, and younger generations are reading almost as much as older ones. According to MNI, Baby Boomers read 9.2 magazines per month, Gen Xers read 9.1 and Millennials read 8.9.
Gen Zers, or people born between 1995 and 2012, have been hailed as the saviors of the future of print media. According to Folio, even though they’re obsessed with their phones, the average Gen Zer will still read magazines for about an hour every week.
Plus, 61% of Gen Zers believe their peers would benefit from unplugging more. Even though they grew up with technology, they see the value in print media and unplugging when consuming content. According to research from MNI, “Gen Z may breathe new life into print — preferring to use newspapers and magazines [without] interruption and trusting these publications over other media to deliver credible information.”
When marketers invest in print media, they’re targeting the younger generation. This is going to pay off in the years ahead, as Gen Z will become the largest generation of consumers by 2020.
You can provide another revenue sourc.
Marketers looking to increase revenue for their clients can sells ads and charge subscribers for print publications, which increases clients’ bottom lines. Advertising sales and print subscriptions are more tangible ROIs than, say, social media or email marketing.
You can increase loyalty.
If marketers work with clients that have members and/or associations,these clients have built-in audiences that enjoy reading print publications to learn about upcoming events and classes, news about their members and career development opportunities. These publications are distributed at member meetings and association gatherings, increasing loyalty to the associations as well as membership numbers.
You can help clients stand out.
Most businesses or organizations are investing in digital and forgetting about print. If marketers want to be unique in this competitive environment for consumers’ attention, they can think outside the box and develop print publications. Going “old school” can give them that edge they’re looking for.
You can establish trust.
The research is clear: Consumers trust print media above all other types of media, including digital news outlets and social media platforms. According to a Kantar poll of 8,000 consumers in the U.S., France, Brazil and the U.K., printed news magazines are the most trusted resource for news, followed by 24/7 TV news, radio bulletins and national newspapers. The print versions of national newspapers were more trusted than the newspapers’ websites.
If marketers want to help their clients establish trust among consumers, investing in print media is the way to go. Since customers buy from those they trust, this can lead to higher sales for their clients.
You can appeal to visual learners.
Sixty-five percent of people are visual learners. Marketers can appeal to a majority of the population with print media full of great visuals. Visual, printed media is especially attractive in a time when consumers have to read so much content, including social media feeds, texts and emails on their devices day in and day out.
What our client team is seeing today – December, 2025
From our experiences as a growth marketing, SEO, and PR agency in 2023–2025, this is what we are seeing: print still matters in 2025, but it matters most as a targeted, high-intent, trust-building layer that works alongside digital—not as a mass-reach, standalone channel for most brands.
Here’s how that shows up across our work and the data we’ve reviewed:
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Print is a response and conversion workhorse, not just a “brand nice-to-have.” Direct mail and print inserts routinely post response rates several times higher than email and many digital ads, with recent benchmarks showing direct mail response around 8–11% vs roughly 1–2% for email and other digital channels, and very strong ROI when campaigns are well targeted.
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Trust and attention are the main reasons print is still in the mix. Recent surveys continue to show that a majority of consumers trust print ads more than digital ads and find printed information easier to understand and remember. In practical terms, that means print is often the channel we lean on when a client needs to communicate something complex, high-stakes, or high-ticket and can’t afford to be dismissed as “just another ad.”
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Most audiences are “hybrid” now, not purely digital or purely print. Studies suggest around 60% of consumers say they engage with both print and digital and value the tactile experience of print alongside online convenience. The campaigns we see performing best mirror this: print pieces drive to personalized URLs, QR codes, or landing pages, and digital remarketing follows up on the most engaged print responders.
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Gen Z and younger Millennials are not anti-print—they’re selective about it. Current research and media reporting show Gen Z reviving zines, indie magazines, and collectible print titles as an antidote to digital fatigue and algorithm-driven feeds. In our own planning, we treat print for younger audiences as a premium, design-led touchpoint—not bulk junk mail.
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Print is moving from “volume” to “precision.” The expert consensus and the campaigns we’re involved in both point the same way: print in 2025 is most effective when it’s tightly targeted (e.g., account-based mailers, local catchment areas, lapsed-customer winbacks) and personalized, often with variable data and QR codes that connect seamlessly into CRM and marketing automation.
Taken together, our view is: In 2025, print is a high-ROI specialty channel that earns its place in the media mix when it’s integrated, data-driven, and used where trust, memorability, and physical presence really matter. For brand awareness you can often go digital-first; for depth of understanding, recall, and action—especially in local, B2B, and higher-consideration buys—print still punches above its weight.
What top print experts are saying
Across publishers, research groups, and print-focused marketing experts, there’s a clear throughline: print is smaller than it was a decade ago, but it’s still effective and often more trusted and more memorable than digital alone.
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Trust & credibility – Research summarized by Two Sides and others shows that consumers consistently rate print as more trustworthy than digital media. One survey cited by print-industry analysts found that around 60–62% of consumers say they trust print ads more than digital ads, and that print news and magazines are viewed as safer and more reliable than social media. Two Sides notes that readers also feel they gain a deeper understanding of stories when they read them in print compared with online sources.
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Response rates and ROI – Market data on direct mail in 2024–2025 continues to show unusually strong performance. Recent reports put average direct mail response rates around 9% versus roughly 1.5% for email, with some estimates suggesting an average ROI where every dollar spent can return dozens of dollars in revenue. Print-focused analysts also highlight that print ads are remembered and retained longer than digital ones, with a majority of consumers saying they read or scan the physical mail and catalogs they receive.
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Print as a premium, integrated touchpoint- Many marketing experts stress that the role of print has changed rather than disappeared. Intergraf’s “Print and Digital Media” work, for example, points to advantages of print over digital in reading comprehension, marketing effectiveness, and consumer access in certain contexts. Direct mail specialists and 2025 trend pieces emphasize that print is most powerful when it’s integrated with digital—think QR codes, personalized URLs, and campaigns where a mailed piece triggers follow-up via email, ads, and sales outreach.
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Gen Z and the “print renaissance” –Cultural and education experts are also noting that younger audiences are bringing new energy to print. Commentary from design and fashion schools describes how “Gen Z is reviving print culture in 2025—seeking authenticity, creativity, and a break from digital fatigue,” particularly through zines and indie magazines. Media coverage of relaunches like i-D magazine under new ownership links this trend to the broader appetite for tangible, collectible media among Gen Z, in the same way vinyl and film cameras have made a comeback.
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Expert framing on print’s role in 2025 – Marketing agencies that specialize in print and omnichannel campaigns consistently argue that print remains valuable when it’s used strategically. One recent 2025-focused analysis puts it bluntly: “print marketing is not only surviving—it’s thriving when used strategically alongside digital efforts,” underscoring that the best-performing strategies blend digital and print instead of treating them as either/or.
Are you ready to invest in media?
Print media is not going anywhere. Marketers can increase their clients’ revenue, gain consumers’ trust, attract visual learners and younger readers and much more by investing in this medium. Are you ready to start experiencing the benefits of print in 2025?
To refresh this piece for 2025, our growth marketing, SEO, and PR team combined two things: what we’re actually seeing in client campaigns and what the latest data says about print. On the client side, we’ve been testing print alongside email, paid social, search, and PR for B2B, DTC, and local service brands, paying close attention to where print still moves the needle on revenue, CAC, and brand lift. In parallel, we reviewed current industry research on direct mail performance, print ad ROI, and consumer trust in different channels, including recent market data showing print and direct mail delivering response rates and ROI that are still significantly higher than many digital-only campaigns.
Because the original article leaned heavily on 2017–2019 data, we went back out to see what top experts and organizations are saying now. That included updated statistics on how consumers mix print and digital, why print continues to rank among the most trusted ad formats, and how Gen Z’s relationship with print has shifted as they look for a break from “always-on” screens. We also looked at recent commentary from print-focused marketers, mail houses, publishers, and research groups that specialize in direct mail, magazines, and newspapers to understand how they’re positioning print inside modern omnichannel strategies.
