There are many topics on the subject of which are the better medium between online and print. This entry will focus mainly on the pros and cons of both types in relation to advertising; as there are many aspects of both types of media.

Why advertising you may ask? I say why not? Both have similarities and differences, but nothing defines their similarity better than the need to earn revenue. Advertising money is the lifeblood of both. Commerce has been thriving on the net as of late and it has been the way of the printed page for a much longer time. But their similarities don’t end there, both costs money to make, both have audiences to reach and so on and so forth.

But how do they size up to each other? First, there has to be content. Both turn out content and both use computers to achieve this. It involves design, copywriting, editing and of course, time. All things being equal, I would say online has the upper hand on this aspect for the reason that it takes relatively lesser time to finish content on the web compared to print. Also, there is this little thing called “money”. Print content is relatively costly compared to web or online content, production wise. Print media is, well, “printed”. There is additional cost for paper, ink, manpower and so on and so forth. In comparison, with online content you just upload it when it’s ready and well, that’s about it. Of course one can argue that you need hosting and setup fees to get your content on the web. Still, this is relatively lower in cost as compared to getting a printed advertisement on paper. Getting your advertisement to your target audience is a totally different matter.

For printed media, your ad will be printed on X number of copies and distributed to X number of outlets and distributors. It will reach an X number of readers. Although there are other factors like pass-on readership, printed media “frozen” in time (once printed, it’s just there on the page) and organized distribution channels, ultimately it is still more costly to get your message across by this means.

Conversely, distribution cost is not a big problem for print’s online counterpart. There is however a marketing aspect in online advertising and online content. Online marketing takes a little bit more effort and is a little bit more complicated than marketing a newspaper or magazine. But with a little bit of effort, online marketing has a more predictable result compared to its printed brethren. Online content is “targeted” to a specific audience, although printed media has its studies and target audience, online marketing with its extra effort gets more specific results than printed media. Search engines and Search Engine Optimization are just some of the tools used to ensure your message reaches its intended audience. Let me expound on this point some more. Say you have an ad that came out in ABC magazine. It has a distribution of X number of copies and an X number of readers. Say it was a special issue and it sold more copies than the usual. But the big question is this: Is there a way to determine your ad reached an X number of readers? The answer is: No. Here comes a unique strength to online media. Yes, you could actually monitor your audience. Hits. More specifically, unique hits. Unique hits are determined using sophisticated software that identifies visitors using IP addresses used by their computers when accessing a particular website or page. It is for this reason that more and more people are turning to the internet to market their products and is also the reason for the proliferation of online businesses. Chalk up another point for online media.

Fact of the matter is print and online media share a lot of commonalities. It’s like the new and the old. Each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses. But when it comes to cost and determining the result of a specific ad campaign, advantage belongs to online media. This strength inherent to online media’s “computerized” nature. The extra effort in marketing your product online will yield more specific results. Cost is also a big advantage that sways in the way towards online advertising/marketing. It only takes a fraction of the cost to put your content online as opposed to having it printed and distributed in a newspaper and a magazine. Nothing beats a consolidated ad campaign involving print and online media. But when it comes down to getting the most out of your advertising dollar, I would put my money on online advertising/media any day of the week.