As a self-proclaimed book lover, it may be ironic for me to say that I hate the library. Well, I do. I loathe the shelves of mostly outdated reference books; I cringe at the never-touched, expensive encyclopedia sets; and most of all I despise the motorized chugging of the iPrint in the designated “Quiet Area.” The library may be a refuge to some students, but I see it as the enabler of printed media.

Printed media such as books, magazines, and newspapers have never done me any harm, except for a few dozen paper cuts along the way. But its physical form of dissemination is the bane of its existence, especially in the latter two examples. This is my beef.

Timeliness is an essential quality of newspapers and most magazines. In addition to being costly and laborious, the process of publishing, printing and distributing takes time- a lot of it. If an event occurs, a newspaper can only report, write, edit and publish an article about it the next day-if the event is particularly pressing or planned in advance. More realistically, readers will find the article in one of the following issues. Conversely, a news brief of the event can be published online almost immediately after it happened. Ah, the prospect of e-media begins to glimmer.

Popular news magazine Newsweek recently announced that they are jumping on the digital gold-rush; its last print issue is scheduled for Dec. 31, 2013. The publication’s decision may appear radical at first, but under further examination, it just makes sense.  

Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of Newsweek and The Daily Beast writes, “It costs $42 million a year to manufacture, print, distribute and manage the circulation of Newsweek.” Newsweek, among other publications, is realizing the costliness of sustaining its print editions. 

“We [at The Seahawk] get most of our readers online, off of our website,” said Juliane Bullard, lifestyles editor of The Seahawk, as she showed me the number of hits on the newspaper’s website. Bullard illuminates another advantage of online media. Millions of readers get their news downloaded to their tablets, e-readers or phones. Blogging and social media like Twitter dominate the Internet news realm and will continue to do so as society becomes even more technologically driven. In fact, The Seahawk is beginning to explore 

It’s simply faster, more convenient, and accessible.

While printed media advocates’ arguments are deeply rooted in sentimentality and personal preference, the hard-fact advantages of digital publishing cannot be ignored. I cannot contend with the innate pleasure found in lounging outside during the summer, reading a cloth-bound classic novel, but I do embrace the digital transition to news-based media.

However, here’s some food for thought for fellow book lovers: readers must now trust publications not to go back and alter the online archives so that people never existed or events never happened. That would be tragically Orwellian, wouldn’t it?