Keith Kelly

Print, long bashed as a relic of a bygone era, seems to be making a comeback with an unlikely bunch of backers -- digital-content companies.

Unencumbered by the old legacy structures that boosted ad-rate bases with low-quality subscriptions, the new digital-to-print movement for the most part seems to be narrowly focused in specialized niches.

“Many print assets have enormous brand equity, and these have been grossly underleveraged in digital,” said Joe Mohen, a digital-media executive who has looked at a number of print brands in recent years. “However, what is entirely new is the phenomenon of exploiting digital-only brand equity in print,” Mohen said.