Just a few thoughts. From the first ref:

In order to appreciate the possibilities of the World-Wide Web for genealogical publishing, it is worth considering first some of the shortcomings of the traditional methods of publishing one’s genealogical researches in print.
Publication in print is perfectly suitable for publishing many types of archive and historical document, but while the word-processor and the cheap laser printer have made it much easier for the individual to produce quite polished publications for relatively little outlay, it is not entirely suitable for ongoing genealogical researches for a number of reasons.

From the second one for conventional publishing vs. multimedia / digital, take a look at this article:
Will digital take over conventional publishing? If HP Digital Publishing Solutions commercial development manager Steve Donegal is to be believed, the answer is a big "Yes".

According to Donegal, the change over is a certain, especially in the enterprise segment, where printing is often outsourced. And he has statistics to back his prediction: digital publishing is growing at 65 % year on year, while conventional publishing is posting only 1% annual growth.

Steve reasons that though conventional machines have faster output speed averaging 10,000 pages per hour, they accept only static data. Also these machines are economically feasible only to for bulk printing.

This one is from an e-book publisher at www.atps.com/publisher2.htm
(Sorry, ran out of room here.)
Now it is possible with new technology to get published and expose your book to millions on the Internet at a small fraction of the cost of conventional publishing. We have the technology and experience.

I also saw "traditional publishing".
HTH