Print is not dead – not at all. There is a lot going on, while online is opening up new opportunities. Introducing Deborah Causton, who transforms her passion for magazines into a venture – Anikibo.

Can you tell us about your platform? What is your approach?
Anikibo is a peer to peer marketplace for independent publishers of magazines, zines and comics. We’ll also open up for books at some point in the future. The idea for the marketplace was to facilitate a one-stop shop for customers to discover new titles from around the world and make it easier for titles to be found whilst ensuring a larger percentage of the profits remain with the publisher.

What is the future? Print, webzines, blogs or all mixed in?
The market is interesting right now, plenty of publications are testing out new ideas, pushing out print whilst embracing digital. Each delivery medium is relevant in its own right, it‘s old technologies vs new, nostalgia vs new possibilities. Ultimately it will be the consumer who decides how they want their content delivered. Personally, I very much hope that print remains strong within that mix.

Name five Zines worth reading and why!
Ummm, 5 that’s tough. A traditional magazine I cherished was The Word, unfortunately a casualty of the digital age, it was truly a vice – I loved the writing and the subject matter. Another I’ve always admired is Paper Jam out of Luxembourg. In its execution, it is without question, the sexiest looking business magazine you’ll ever find. Save the Princess is a colour photocopied zine It just makes me smile every time I open it out. I have no idea who made it – if it was you, reading this, “Thanks”! If you can find a copy Selected Business Correspondence by Andrew Kaufman, it’s not a magazine per se but just an excellent example how anything can be made into something that delights! It is a collection of antique business letter correspondence collected by the publisher. Recently released It’s All In the Delivery is a new kid on the block. Worthy of a mention as so much care was taken in the production, the paper differences, the format. It’s these kind of things that makes me love print.

There’s some talk about a “print revival”. Your thoughts on it?
I do believe that print will make a comeback. Not in terms of mass media, nor will it ever rule the roost again in terms of content distribution. But by way of nostalgia and digital fatigue – this will drive a revival.

“Print is dying” is still a commonplace fact for some. You opinion on this?
The ‘print is dead’ debate reared its head from as early back as 1999. Sure it’s not what it was, sure it will have to find new and innovative ways to keep up with the accessibility and distribution possibilities of digital, but if we never cared about the way content was delivered then everything would have come as photocopied pages stapled together. The diversity of print techniques and papers are yet to be replicated in digital terms. You simply can’t imitate a large format photographic coffee table book for example. As long as there are people wanting to purchase such things, print won’t die!

Thanks, Deborah!

> Anikibo online

Deborah Causton has been working in the creative and then the online industry since hot marching out of university well over a decade ago. She ran a magazine and has by-lined her professional life with various creative projects. Anikibo was born of a passion for printed material and the frustration of not being able to bring home everything of newly discovered materials from trips abroad. Spending the last 10 years building websites it was time to merge the two avenues of her creative and digital life. Anikibo is the result of this.

Interview by Sven Job