You’re not gonna believe this. Then again, maybe you will. Newsflash: it’s time to invest in that stretch of forest you’ve been eyeing up in British Columbia or Poland because I can confidently report that paper, as a vehicle for distributing information, emotions and irrational impulses, is making a comeback. And it’s about bloody time! Now, I know you’re thinking, “Of course Tyler would say this because he’s been an advocate of print since he discovered the world of Richard Scarry back in 1972,” but I have solid evidence. So please pay attention.

Earlier this week I met with a major player in the business of transporting tens of millions of people around the world. Like many in their sector, they’d long been looking for a reason to accelerate their “digital transformation” (when will see an end to this term?) and getting rid of magazines, and paper in general, was a way to show progress while supposedly saving on fuel costs. Some did away with their in-flight magazines early on and pushed passengers to download digital editions before boarding; to this day, I reckon four – max five – people have ever downloaded a magazine before boarding a flight. Then the pandemic did a very good job of pretty much killing off the seat-pocket magazine for reasons that still baffle. We were told that the onboard mag was easily contaminated and would spread coronavirus but in-flight safety cards would not. Seriously? Can you believe that we fell for this nonsense? Anyway, the pandemic was the perfect excuse for all those people who actually defined themselves as digital natives to show how forward-thinking they were – and, in an instant, magazines disappeared for most carriers.

Four years later, I’m chatting to some airline executives who are looking at what their competitors are doing, listening to their passengers and realising that there’s not only a missed opportunity to talk up their brand to their passengers but also to sell a few ads and generate a bit of extra revenue. “Most of us have come to the conclusion that digital can’t do everything and we’re missing that moment to connect with passengers when they’re not on their screens,” said an exec.

And here’s another thing that came as a bit of a surprise. On Friday afternoon I was at the kiosk in Paris picking up my weekend haul of newspapers and magazines, and while I’m no fan of the “mag in a plastic bag” as a supplement to my regular reading, I was thrilled to see that Le Bon Marché had chosen Le Figaro to carry an autumn catalogue celebrating its Paris Paris exhibition. The chunky little catalogue was a perfect accompaniment to the paper’s weekend line-up and it did such a good job that after flipping through its pages I went to the store to track down a few birthday treats for mom. So clever was the marketing team at Le Bon Marché that it had done a men’s and women’s edition. Could a digital newsletter have done a similar job? Perhaps. But it wouldn’t have given me the depth or sense of urgency that the catalogue delivered. What better tool than printed words and imagery to promote an experience that’s physical and demands that you visit the store instead of simply shopping online?

Finally, Monocle is about to send an almost 300-page issue to press, much of it driven by brand partners who want to be on page rather than on-screen. We’re hoping to have at least another thumper before year’s end. Meanwhile, time to think about that stretch of forest or buying a recently abandoned printing company.