The past 18 months has seen a glut of online articles about the supposed return of print media, especially among today’s youth. House of Coco (1) say 2025 is the year of the print revival, Bolt Ahead (2) and Title Media (3) said it was 2024, but the fact is that since 2023, there has been a shift in attitudes towards print; once considered to be rendered obsolete and pushed to extinction by digital media, print media is now being propped up by an unexpected culture of optimism.
This revival runs curiously parallel to the rise of newsletters. Beehiiv, a popular newsletter platform, saw their number of emails sent go from 300 million in 2022, to 15.6 billion in 2024 (4). Of course, they are biased in their business interests, but they claim that with newsletters, “you get to take back control of your communication with your audience”.
Correlation may not equal causation, but I contend the revival of print media and the rise of newsletters are both a response to the same problems plaguing social media in the mid-20s:
- A) the chaos of current social media algorithms, the meteoric rise of low-quality ‘brain rot’ content, which, combined with near constant ads, creates noise that distracts us from what we want to use social media for in the first place.
- B) The impact of social media on the mental health of young people is widely acknowledged, even by Gen Z who are now in part stepping away from it with so-called “dumbphones”, screen-time limits, minimalist UI mods, and other means of limiting their social media addiction.
- C) Additionally, social media has lost the fight against misinformation, and young people are growing increasingly sceptical of the algorithms that promote fake news. Internet users, young and old, are finding new ways of seeking out reliable informational.
The For You page, while excellent at providing users with endless content, obscured the relationship between fan and creator, as we were no longer digesting content from those we made the conscious decision to follow.
Now, it seems, users are getting tired of the chaotic algorithms; we want to directly connect with the creators we value. The 2010s saw ‘zines’ take off (7), for this was a way for small, independent scenes to connect with their audiences and leave a tangible impact on them, as well as aligning with their subcultural values, providing a sense of community that social media no longer fosters.
Zines are still popular in some circles, but newsletters are now more often preferred: they’re free to make, free to send, easy to distribute, and fit in nicely with our social media habits.
Another reason for the rise of newsletters is the diversification of content. Legacy publications are now perhaps too general to suit the needs of individuals, as consumers have moved toward niche and speciality content, which newsletters are more than capable of providing (8).
And, as such with the 2010s resurgence of vinyl, cassette, and photographic film, print media holds significant collectors appeal and aesthetic value. Print media, like vinyl, holds a nostalgic quality for Gen Z (9) who can’t or can barely remember a time before widespread digitisation. Tangibility is also important for a generation who are growing increasingly aware that they’ll maybe never own anything.
And lastly, with the biggest condemnation of digital media, print media “provides a break from digital life” (10). We are simply growing tired of it all, and we are looking for alternatives wherever available.
More research needs to be done on the impact of social media on Gen Z’s morals, aesthetics, values, and trends (11), but anecdotally, we can look to history: the young generation creates a new mainstream by rebelling against the old one. Digital may be here to stay, but its ubiquity is up for question.
(1) Print Revival: How Magazines Are Making a Comeback in 2025 – House Of Coco Magazine
(2) The Return of Print Media in 2024 – Bolt Marketing
(3) Why 2024 will be the year for magazine print revival – Title Media
(4) The State of Email Newsletters by beehiiv (2025)
(5) Gen Z Can’t Give Up Print Media Just Yet
(6) Dumb phones are on the rise in the U.S. as Gen Z limits screen time
(7) Generation Zine: Why the Revival of Zine Culture Is Crucial Today | New University | UC Irvine
(8) Print Revival: How Magazines Are Making a Comeback in 2025 – House Of Coco Magazine
(9) Why Millennials and Gen Z are Romantically Drawn to Vinyl Records – Entertainment Post
(10) “It provides a break from digital life”: Vinyl is back and it’s all thanks to Gen Z | MusicRadar
(11) (PDF) The Generation Z and their Social Media Usage: A Review and a Research Outline