First of all, a magazine or a newspaper is an object, something that you can touch and handle, something that - with a few exceptions - you have to buy with your own money. Let us take the example of a magazine; its format, its weight, the quality of its paper, its lay-out, its type-setting, its general colour, that is to say, the proportion between white, black, supporting colour and full colour, all of these build up the subtle personality of that object which is also a magazine. Research we carried out some years ago shows that buyers and readers derive some sort of mild sensuous gratification from the touch and look of the magazine, considered as an object, and that this is an important element in the set of motivations conditioning loyalty.
It is a large order; it is also a blanket order, in that sense that an infinity of communications of widely differing content could bear that title. I have chosen to dwell on possible changes in the mass media; in examining these changes, I have always borne in mind a very important question: "How can print media adapt themselves to the impact of television, and to the changes in the communication market"; and this both from the standpoints of editorial and advertising. I hope to be able to offer, as a conclusion, some sort of answer to that question. Changes that may occur in the mass media are of two types. The first ones, easier to define and to analyze, are the technological changes: this is the realm of "communication-fiction". The other type of changes, those that stem from the way a society makes use of its media is a much harder field to investigate.