Will the latest digital killer apps be the demise for the print industry? Must we worry about how the ever-expanding arsenal of digital devices will destroy print? No more, the consumer will help save it.

The CMO Council, the global leader in the development of Marketing Performance Measurement, released a study that found that consumers actually prefer — gasp! — printed over their digital counterparts. How many? Ninety percent of those surveyed said they’ll hang onto their print, even with the option of an e-reader or online counterpart.

If this feels like déjà vu all over again, it’s because it is. The obituaries for print have been many and myriad over the past two decades — and obviously wrong. While it is true that consumers have found much to love about the digital tools we now possess, it’s also true that they haven’t come close to giving up on print.

And why would they? To borrow a phrase from the digital lexicon, print is “user friendly”:It’s portable, accessible, visually compelling, highly effective, and a real value. There’s no reason for consumers to give up on it. For them, it’s not a choice of one or the other; it’s a matter of using both print and digital — for different objectives.

So, should you be surprised that nine out of 10 people want to hang onto their print, that print still delivers a higher level of engagement and returns a significantly higher response rate? It’s not a surprise to marketers. Spending on all forms of print dwarf the spending on online advertising (direct mail alone is more than $29 billion vs. $7.8 billion for online display ads).

Arguing about whether digital will supplant print next year or the year after that or the years after that misses the point. It’s not about independence, it’s about integration.

Time after time, marketers have proven that the two media work better together. Print is the “push” that complements the Web’s “pull.” As catalogers know well, a print piece not only drives additional traffic to the website, it increases the amount that people spend when they arrive.

Print’s demise may be overstated, but it would be just as foolish to ignore the growing dominance of digital. Smart marketers are finding ways to blend the two to create an even more powerful connection to their customers. Are you?