Let’s start with the facts.

1. The newspaper industry is dying (except for local papers!).

2. Smart phones, e-Readers and tablets are selling like crazy.

3. More and more web traffic is on mobile devices.

4. Sales of e-Books are rising dramatically.

5. Publishers are all talking about the transition to digital.

Given all that, you can understand why people would assume that print is dying and publishers should hurry up and rush to digital.

It’s not that clear. Let’s examine why newspapers are dying.

First, why did we have all these papers to begin with? Why was there a New York Times, a Washington Post, a Chicago Tribune, etc., all basically reporting on the same stuff?

A few reasons. The paper had to be printed, then delivered on trucks to distribution areas where kids on bicycles could bring it to your home. A Washington paper could hardly be delivered to Chicago, or vice versa.

Also, the papers had local news, local advertisements, local job postings and local classified ads.

Think how much of that has changed. Job postings are on Monster.com. Classified ads are on Craigslist. I can get the Chicago Tribune online faster than any truck and kid on a bicycle could hope to deliver it.

There is simply no reason to have several national newspapers any more. That’s why they’re dying.

Now think — how much of that applies to magazines or newsletters? Almost none of it. Most notably, magazines and newsletters don’t rely on classified ads for a big share of their revenue, and it really doesn’t matter if your magazine is printed in New York or Topeka. Local delivery is irrelevant.

The simple fact of the matter is that people aren’t moving to digital magazines. The figures for digital sales of magazines are dreadful.

Why? Why do lots of people buy eBooks but not many at all buy eMagazines or eNewsletters?

I can’t say that I know for sure, but a book is mostly just words. It doesn’t matter too much whether it’s on paper or not. However, even at that, many people remain devoted to “real” books.

Magazines and newsletters continue to have strong sales in print.

Will that change? Maybe. It will almost certainly change at least a little. But there’s no evidence to suggest that magazines or newsletters will follow the same calamitous path as newspapers.

Should magazine and newsletter publishers work on digital publishing? Of course they should. But it has to be done pragmatically, after examining what’s really going on — and without being fooled by the “print is dead” nonsense we’ve been hearing for decades.