Last week five of the top U.S.-based magazine publishers joined forces to launch a multi-million dollar “Power of Print” campaign, extolling the advantages of ink-on-paper magazines.

Over the coming months, nearly 100 magazine titles owned by Wenner Media, Time Inc., Conde Nast, Meredith Corporation and Hearst Magazines plan to print 1,400 pages of “Power of Print” ads, reaching an average of 112 million readers a month.

Created by Y&R New York, the ads will appear in prime magazine positions, that typically would cost regular advertisers around $90 million. The ads will roll-out in May issues as full-color spreads boasting headlines such as, “We Surf the Internet. We Swim in Magazines” and “Will the Internet Kill Magazines? Did Instant Coffee Kill Coffee?” In June, another set of ads will feature covers of popular magazines embedded in text.

Y&R developed a special “magazines” logo for the campaign made up of the familiar logotypes of several magazines. (Shown below.) The “Power of Print” campaign isn’t directed at mainstream readers. It targets advertisers, shareholders and industry influencers, and backs up its claim that magazines remain as relevant as ever by refuting misperceptions with hard numbers.

“Power of Print” reminds us of the excellent “Life with Print” campaign sponsored by Sappi Fine Paper about five years ago. Both present compelling arguments for why print is far from dead. Print is rediscovering its mojo and telling the Internet to scoot over, it’s not going away.

Here are 11 facts that magazine publishers want you to keep in mind:

1. Magazine readership has grown over the past five years. (Source: MRI)
2. Average paid subscriptions reached nearly 300 million in 2009.
   (Source: MPA estimates based on ABC first and second half 2009 data)
3. 4 out of 5 adults read magazines. (Source: MRI)
4. Magazines deliver more ad impressions than TV or Web in half-hour period.
   (Source: McPheters &amp Company)
5. Magazine readership in the 18 to 34 segment is growing. (Source: MRI)
6. Since Facebook was founded, magazines gained more than one million young adult readers. (Source: MRI)
7. The average reader spends 43 minutes reading each issue. (Souce: MRI)
8. Magazines are the No. 1 medium of engagement – across all dimensions measured. Simmons’ Multi-Media Engagement Study find magazines continue to score significantly higher than TV or the Internet in ad receptivity and all of the other engagement dimensions, including “trustworthy” and “inspirational.”
   (Source: Simmons Multi-Media Engagement Study)
9. Magazines and magazine ads garner the most attention: BIGresearch studies show that when consumers read magazines they are much less likely to engage with other media or to take part in the non-media activities compared to the users of TV, radio or the Internet.
   (Source: BIGresearch Simultaneous Media Usage Study)
10. Magazines outperform other media in driving positive shifts in purchase consideration/intent.
    (Source: Dynamic Logic)
11. Magazines rank No. 1 at influencing consumers to start a search online – higher than newer media options.
    (Source: BIGresearch Simultaneously Media Usage Study)

Take the Magazine Masthead Quiz: Can you identify the eight mastheads these letter are from?