The answer is yes – but not automatically
The obituary for print has been written many times. Each new platform seems to arrive with the same prediction: younger people will abandon anything they cannot swipe, stream or scroll.
Gen Z has certainly grown up in a digital world. Its members use social platforms to discover ideas, follow creators, research decisions and stay connected. Any organization that wants to reach them should understand that reality. But digital-first does not mean digital-only, and it does not mean that physical media has become irrelevant.
The more accurate conclusion is this: Gen Z still engages with print, but print must earn its attention. A publication cannot rely on nostalgia, tradition or the fact that it arrived in the mailbox. It has to feel useful, human and intentionally made.
Young adults are still reading physical books
The clearest national evidence comes from books. In a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October 2025 and published in 2026, 66 percent of U.S. adults ages 18 to 29 said they had read a print book during the previous 12 months. In the same age group, 41 percent had read an e-book and 32 percent had listened to an audiobook.
That age bracket is not a perfect synonym for Gen Z – it includes some younger millennials – and a book is not the same thing as a magazine. Still, the result directly challenges the idea that young adults have rejected physical reading. They routinely move between formats and choose each for different reasons.
The American Library Association found a similar pattern in its study of Gen Z and millennials: 54 percent had visited a physical library in the previous year, and the report noted a preference for printed books even among people who also used digital library collections.
Screen fatigue is creating room for physical experiences
Print does not compete with digital on speed. It competes on experience. A physical publication is finite. It does not refresh itself while the reader is looking away, interrupt a paragraph with a notification or immediately lead into another hour of content.
Research commissioned by print and marketing company Quad and conducted by The Harris Poll offers useful – although commercially sponsored – evidence of this appetite for the tangible. In the 2025 Return of Touch study, 81 percent of Gen Z respondents said they often wished it were easier to disconnect from digital devices. Seventy-three percent of Gen Z and millennial respondents said they looked forward to receiving catalogs from brands, and 78 percent said print media had influenced them to choose one brand over another in the previous year.
Those findings do not prove that every young person wants more mail, or that a parish magazine will automatically be read. They do suggest something important: a generation surrounded by screens can still value material that offers a break from them.
Why print can work with Gen Z:
It feels chosen rather than endless
A well-edited magazine tells the reader that someone selected these stories and arranged them with care. That curation contrasts with an infinite feed shaped by an algorithm whose goal is to keep the user scrolling.
It is tangible and visible
A social post disappears within minutes. A magazine may remain on a counter, travel to a waiting room or be handed to another person. Its physical presence creates more than one opportunity to notice it.
It can feel local in a way mass media cannot
Gen Z does not need another generic institution telling it what young people supposedly care about. A story about an actual student, newly married couple, teacher or volunteer in the same community is harder to dismiss. Local specificity creates relevance.
It crosses generations
A printed magazine can be encountered by a teenager, parent and grandparent in the same household. Each may begin with a different article, but the publication gives them a shared object and, potentially, a shared conversation.
What is Gen Z is unlikely to read?
The existence of a print preference does not excuse weak content. Young readers are unlikely to give sustained attention to cramped pages, stock photographs, long institutional summaries or articles that describe programs without introducing a single real person.
They also notice when an organization speaks about young people without speaking with them. Featuring a twenty-year-old only as evidence that a ministry is ‘reaching youth’ can feel performative. Let young Catholics speak in their own words, ask real questions and appear as full members of the Church rather than props in someone else’s message.
Good design matters too. Strong photography, short entry points, pull quotes and a varied article mix make a publication easier to enter. Depth is welcome, but a reader should not have to commit to fifteen uninterrupted minutes before finding a reason to care.
The winning strategy is not print instead of digital
The evidence does not support replacing digital communication with print. It supports using the two formats for the jobs they perform best. Social media can create discovery and conversation. A website can provide current information. Video can capture a voice and personality. Print can offer a slower, more focused encounter with a story.
The channels can strengthen one another. A magazine story can lead to a short video through a QR code. A social carousel can introduce a family profiled in the next issue. A compelling quote from a printed interview can bring readers to the full story online.
The question is therefore not whether Gen Z still reads print. Many young people clearly do. The more useful question is whether the print we are giving them understands how they read, what they value and why they might choose to pause.
Gen Z does not need more content. It needs content worth stepping away from the feed to experience.
DECM helps parishes create professional local magazines filled with the people and stories readers cannot find anywhere else. Explore the parish magazine model.