As we all know, the publishing industry is currently experiencing major upheaval as  it struggles to cope with the fallout of the battle between digital and print. Publishers are being forced to trial new revenue models as they battle to survive and the media world is enthusiastically debating how this will all pan out and which is the right horse to back.

There are commonly two main schools of thought.

The first is that print media as we know it will die as it’s swallowed up by digital formats. The new consumer will be so indoctrinated into digital media during their formative years that they will not demand printed media in the future.

The second is that it’s possible for digital and print to co-exist as separate formats on a long term basis. After all, many consumers love the touch, feel and smell of the printed page, something that an iPad or Kindle can’t provide.

It wasn’t until this week that I noticed there could be another possible outcome – digital and print media could come together to provide a unique, integrated format. A great example of which is the PhoneBook.

This format takes the traditional story book and makes it interactive through the use of an iPhone. The book becomes peripheral to the main story with the phone sliding into it to create a richer, interactive experience for the reader.

This example is obviously targeted at kids and parents, but this broad concept can also be applied to other audiences. Out of the Box targets users who have difficulty learning how to use a new handset. This would be of particular use to older audiences used to learning about new products from an analogue instruction manual and who don’t have the younger user’s mindset of  ‘play with it and see what happens’.

Could formats like PhoneBook also support a new revenue stream for the publishing industry with users first purchasing a book peripheral and then downloading an app? This seems unlikely and at present, it seems this particular example is only available in the Japanese market, but according to their website, demand does seem to be quite high.

Having downloaded the app for the ‘Ride! Ride’ book, it is quite appealing, but I’m not sure it’ll take off as a format. I fall into the camp that print media is living on borrowed time given the digital indoctrination of this and future generations.

There does seem to be at least some legs in the integration of these two worlds at least in the short-term though and having looked into this general premise,  it seems there’s even a name for it, PaperComp, or ‘paper computing’ where the worlds of digital and print literally collide.

I spotted this ad by Chevrolet in one of the Sunday papers (not the News of the World before you ask) and couldn’t help thinking that it was based on this great pic that’s been doing the rounds online for a while.

I don’t think the ad execution is quite as entertaining as the original version, but it goes to show that creative inspiration can be taken from all of the irreverant content that flies around every day.

On closer investigation, it seems that the original pic has become a bit of an ‘internet meme’ and has spawned several spin off versions: like this, this and this.

Harnessing internet memes can be a great way to create engaging work. A superb example is this from Poke which merged the great LOL Cats meme and the credit crunch crisis.

Reassuringly, this of course now means that we can all spend hours trawling through the internet for a cheap laugh in the name of ‘creative research’.

Every couple of weeks, workload permitting, we have a bit of show-and-tell in the Creative Department called Crunch (creative+lunch), which is a chance for the team to share their inspiration as well as thoughts on work across all media, good or bad.

It was interesting to see that amongst the clever experiential campaigns, striking illustration portfolios, inspiring digital interaction and the latest from CP+B, WK or Goodby was some good old fashioned print.

I’ve been an admirer of the recent Dixons print campaign by M&C Saatchi since it launched in September. Few brands attempt long copy ads (I can only remember VW and Ford in the last six months) but I think these are great – a perfect mix of placement, message and media (the London Underground is where I’ve encountered them).

At the heart of the campaign is good planning insight: people increasingly shop for goods online but quite like to see the products in the flesh first (it was predicted that 93% of consumers planned to shop for their Christmas gifts online in 2009 according to eDigital Research). The strapline makes you think twice because it’s seemingly negative: “Dixons.co.uk. The last place you want to go.” Then there’s the creative itself, playfully sending up John Lewis, Selfridges and Harrods, which has naturally incensed the high street giants and generated a bit of healthy PR in the process. And it also shows Dixons know their place – not in our hearts but perhaps in our wallets.

But it’s the Christmas iteration I really like, which was also voiced by David Mitchell for radio. The fonts in the other ads nod to the brands they’re riffing, but this last is more generic and the resulting page is straight from Dickens, replete with odious caricature in Cedric Prattletwerp. Lovely.

I still wouldn’t shop at Dixons.co.uk if you nailed my balls to a chair…