There’s lots to like about TV. I am old enough to remember when there were only 3 channels in the UK. Then channel 4 came along and introduced us to American Football, Volleyball, and Brookside Close. 

Back then TV audiences were huge, advertisers paid through the nose to be there and so the TV companies had the kind of budgets that lowly magazine types could only dream of. That meant some excellent TV. Think David Attenborough. 

Saint David might be the only argument TV needs to be the top dog and the natural place to rest your leisure time eyeballs.

But hold on. 

TV, just like those videos of mice in grain stores, went on a feeding frenzy and multiplied beyond belief. I bet you clicked on that link didn’t you? Did you lo se minutes, maybe even hours watching videos you really didn’t have time for? 

And that, right there, is the problem.

TV is a dangerous place to be. Whether watching videos online or channel surfing on the sofa, TV nowadays is like the wild west. There is gold in them there hills but it takes an awful amount of panning to find it. TV is a time sponge and so often at the end of your session you have nothing to show for it. Unless you’ve been on QVC of course, in which case you may well have a faux leather vanity case with built in light heading your way.

It’s easier to find the gold in magazines. 

That’s because the editor has drawn you a map. They have done the panning for you by sifting through thousands of stories to find the ones that will inspire or move or inform or delight you. 

That’s because the magazine really knows you. The magazine you love so much, or the one you’ll come to love (hint: find it here, at www.picsandink.com) knows you because you chose it. From the hundreds of independent magazines out there, you picked the one that talks about the things that interest you. You’ve already done the hard work.

Now you’ve found your magazine and your magazine has found you, the two of you can enjoy each other’s company in ways TV can only dream of. You can pop it in your bag and take it travelling with you - either on an adventure (need a mag for that? Look here) or just on the morning commute (how about a mag about business to get you ready for work?) You can take it to bed without disturbing your partner, or into the garden or even the bath (just watch out for soggy pages).

Not only are magazines portable they are tactile too. Words printed on beautiful textured paper, or letter-pressed into crisp high definition. Magazines engage all the senses, you can feel the love with which they have been constructed, smell the print and the inks infused onto the page, you can even look at them and read them.

If we haven’t convinced you already about the joy of magazines perhaps this fact will:

People who were killed while watching TV in the bath: 72 
People who are killed while reading magazines in the bath: 0

Be safe (and read magazines).

(Average number of accidental electrocutions in the bath each year in US, source: Quora. I made up the other stat, but really?)