Why Print Mags Won’t Die

The above photo is of the Choir loft in the St. Paul Minnesota’s North Presbyterian Church where Arthur Fry came upon the idea for the invention that made him famous, the Post-it Note. The picture, along with seven other images, appears in an article titled “Eureka,” running in the April issue of Wired. London-based photographer Nick Waplington traveled around the globe to capture eight spots where inspiration struck, from the train J.K. Rowling sat on while dreaming up the Harry Potter universe to the curve on California Highway Mile 128 where Kary Mullis envisioned Polymerase Chain Reactions. Twelve pages of stunning images, complemented by limited text.

So why won’t print mags ever really die? A spread like this doesn’t work online. There’s no drama, no energy, no beauty. Perhaps Fry says it best in his explanation of his invention’s success: “It’s a paper world out there.” Thirty-four years after his eureka moment, this remains completely true.

More bad iPhone photos of the pretty pages after the jump

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