So much ink has been spilled debating the future of print.  Most of it pessimistic.  But ambro.com has been recommending for years that selling print and digital through the same “hybrid” sales force can be an advantage for print publishers.  We have observed that when a print campaign is won, the timing on that will be well before the digital campaign is decided.  Long-ago we wrote this ad-sales tip on how to leverage that print win into digital revenue.

Now, in its reporting on the print ad-page and revenue growth at men’s magazines in 2013, Ad Age reports one of the reasons for that print growth is digital ideas — that came first — that in turn inspired the clients to add print to a campaign.

“Instead of cannibalizing print, some magazines are seeing digital buys lead to print pages. Esquire magazine, for instance, sold three times as many larger integrated programs to advertisers than its previous high, according to Jack Essig, the magazine’s publisher. “This year we had a few advertisers where digital ideas led to print pages,” he explained. “That was never the case; paging historically led to digital business.”

Increasingly, advertisers are interested in ‘complete’ solutions of multiple media; from print and in-person events surrounded with branded promotion, to digital and mobile media targeting the last steps to purchase.