By print writing here we mean publications that use paper. Digital writing is of course writing for online publications, blogs, websites and newsletters. What is the difference between writing for the print medium and digital medium?

This blog post, rightly, lists many differences, but some of these differences are not as stark as mentioned in the blog post.

While readers may stare at their computer monitors all day, they rarely focus on a single article for more than a minute or two. That’s why the vast majority of what’s written for the Internet is under 1,000 words. Reading multi-page articles online can be a frustrating challenge, but taking in longform content in print, or at least on an e-reader, tends to be much more enjoyable.

Great longform journalism still gets published on the web every day, but it often comes from outlets traditionally known for print. But considering what it takes to keep up with the speed of news, longer articles just aren’t cost effective for anymore for a lot of online outlets.

There is a client for whom I have been writing 2400+-word articles and blog posts for quite some time now because people believe that long form articles and blog posts are preferred by search engines like Google. This Copyblogger blog post quotes Pandu Nayak from Google search who says (this is a slightly older post):

I’m happy to see people continue to invest in thoughtful in-depth content that will remain relevant for months or even years after publication. This is exactly what you’ll find in the new feature. In addition to well-known publishers, you’ll also find some great articles from lesser-known publications and blogs. If you’re a publisher or webmaster, check out our help center article and post on the Webmaster Central blog to learn more.

Does content writing for the web necessarily have to be short and written as if it is being written for teenagers? It depends on your readers. And it isn’t necessarily teenagers who read short form content. For example, I’m easily capable of reading 25,000+ articles and blog posts on my computer or laptop if I’m interested in a topic, but my wife doesn’t read long articles even if they’re interesting (more importantly, written by me).

I’m sure if you’re writing for the B2B market your target audience too is interested in reading in-depth, analytical webpages that provide all the information they need in order to make a better decision. I have seen camera and smartphone reviews that go beyond 4000 words. So it depends on your topic and the sort of audience you are targeting.

According to the article linked above the moot differences between print and digital writing are:

• Digital or web articles need a strong hook:
  It is quite difficult on the web to make people read what you have written because choices are plenty online. This is not the case with a print publication because once you have purchased a magazine, a book or a newspaper, your content consumption is confined to that purchase. On the Internet the choices infinite. This is why readers can be a bit reckless when consuming online content. For the print publication, since you have spent money, you take that content more seriously. This is why it is very important to have a strong hook for your online writing so that people keep on reading without abandoning midway.
• Online articles are shorter compared to print articles: Already explained above.
• Sourcing and attribution: If you are using pre-existing information or data you have to be very sure you’re using the right resources and then attributing the information to them when you’re writing for a print publication. Although this also happens when you are writing for reputable digital publications, the print publications take this aspect more seriously because print publications already have a system that scrutinises empirical claims with greater severity.
• Accountability and authority: You need to be sure of what you’re writing when you are writing for print publications. On the Internet you can be a bit lenient. It doesn’t mean that content on the Internet can be of inferior quality, it’s just that if an error occurs, it is easier to correct the digital format rather than the print format.
• Pitching for new assignments: Comparatively it is easier to pitch for new assignments for digital writing compared to print writing due to realistic as well as psychological differences. Print writing is more conventional. They are used to being very choosy when giving assignments to writers that didn’t work for them regularly. This is not the case for digital publishing. Publishers are more open towards new and relatively inexperienced writers. In fact, with digital publishing you can bypass conventional publishers even when you want to publish a book as you can straight away publish your book these days using services like Amazon.com.
• Payment: Ideally you get paid more for writing for print publications. This is because digital publishing, compared to print publishing, is still new although it has totally dominated the publishing arena. Also, digital publications are quite open to working with newer, less experienced and hence, low-cost writers, which is not the case with print publications.

Although digital publishing has gone mainstream and lots of conventional, print publications are shutting shops because they cannot compete with digital publishing, print publishing is still considered prestigious. Writers, authors and journalists who get published in the print are taken more seriously than the ones that are published on the Internet. I have experienced this personally: when my journalistic articles are published in a conventional, print newspaper, more number of people are awed and impressed and even the newspaper cuttings are saved. Nothing of that sort happens when the same sort of journalistic articles appear in newspapers that are specifically published online.