The post-COVID-19 era has been notably different from any other historical period because of how deeply digitized our lives have become. 

On campus, nearly all our class work is assigned and cataloged via Canvas, most communication with professors is done via email and even the Minnesota Daily itself has been publishing exclusively online for nearly six years. 

However, the switch to digital has not been universal at the University of Minnesota, with some students holding out for the tradition of physical distribution. In some facets of life, print will never go out of style. 

University second-year student Frankie Weaver, the drummer for the local hardcore band “Everybody Takes One,” said he has a passion for archiving the history of the subculture. The hardcore scene emphasizes authenticity and respect for its DIY roots, and because zine making has always been part of that tradition, print remains integral to the subculture.

Weaver is currently compiling everything he can find about one of his favorite early-90s bands, Godspeed. To do their story justice, the magazine he’s creating aims to capture the style of handmade zines being released when the group was active.

“Hardcore in itself is an analog kind of music,” Weaver said. “It’s rough, it’s raw. It’s a 1980s style. So to create something documenting it through a modern lens feels wrong.”

For hardcore enthusiasts, their collections of zines, magazines and flyers are a form of cultural currency. Often writers and photographers like himself, Weaver said, intentionally don’t publish their work online in order to preserve that tradition of sharing and trading a limited amount of physical copies with one another. 

Flipping through the pages of a photobook or specialty magazine with someone, especially a limited edition, is a more engaging experience than passing a phone or laptop back and forth.

The editors at The Wake, the University’s arts and culture magazine, recognize this and still print biweekly editions that stock the Daily’s abandoned distribution boxes.

For fourth-year student and voices editor at The Wake, Bianca Llerena, the copies she kept in her freshman-year dorm became something for her friends to bond over when they visited. 

Since then, her collection has only grown, amassing a library of art and poetry from her college years. When all laid out next to one another, her collection of four years of The Wake magazines creates a vibrant mosaic, picturing the minds of young people from this time in a more resonant way than on The Wake’s digital archive.

Moreover, keeping the physical collection has given Llerena greater incentive to preserve and revisit her work. 

“This is the third house I’ve lived in on campus, and they’ve followed me every single time,” said Llerena. “I think it would be a cool thing to show my kids one day.”

I do not necessarily share the same sentiment about my own articles, as much of what I write is only relevant for a matter of days. 

Katelyn Morken and Rebecca Toov, University archivists and co-curators of the “Beyond The Page” exhibit of the history of the Daily,  said this is simply the nature of news writing. The words on the page have a shelf life of approximately 24 hours. 

“The thing about a daily newspaper or magazine is that in many instances it’s ephemeral,” Toov said. “You get today’s copy, and tomorrow it’s old news.”

So while much of the student work Morken and Toov work to preserve was never written with the intent to transcend generations and may not hold a high personal value to their authors, they do act as an invaluable historical reference.

Today, many mourn the death of the newspaper, but its primary function was always utilitarian, delivering information as quickly as possible. The internet simply does a better job of that than the printing press, and that’s why you’re reading this on a screen.

It’s best not to resist change, especially when it comes to disseminating information, because that will likely make your voice the last to be heard, if it’s even heard at all. In the final days of the Daily’s life in print, the majority of its copies were discarded. 

In today’s information economy, we would be lucky to put a single copy in readers’ hands. Had the Daily dug in its heels and continued releasing print editions, it may have run itself into the ground.

“With The Minnesota Daily, one of the key elements to its longevity and its success is its ability to remain relevant to its readership,” Morken said.

No one checks the bus schedule or the weather at the newsstand anymore, but people still collect scraps of magazines to decorate their bedroom walls or keep a photobook as a display piece in their living rooms.

With respect to arts and culture, print will always be relevant. Humans are tactile, and that reality will never be lost on artists searching for the right way to make their audiences feel something. And certain creations, like an ode to your favorite band or the selected works of young local artists, often deserve to exist as standalone pieces, rather than one of many tabs open on a screen.