The New
York Times announced Wednesday a plan to make staff cuts that will leave 7.5
percent of its newsroom staff jobless.
It’s no secret newspaper offices are taking big hits. A poll
conducted by Pew Research Center in 2010 found that 64 percent of Americans
believe print editions of newspapers will be extinct by the year 2050.
To say
that print newspapers are going extinct, however, is not to say that the
newspaper industry is going extinct. Newspapers will adapt as they always have.
With the arrival of radio, newspapers were thought to die out.
They didn’t. With the arrival of television, newspapers and radio were
predicted to become obsolete. They haven’t. These media never fall off the map
completely, but are modified to meet the demands of changing times.
In today’s world, newspapers are moving online and becoming
mobile-friendly as more and more readers reach for their smart phones to track
current events and ignore the print editions lingering on newsstands.
While online revenues for most news media only account for a
fraction of the income from print, as we move toward a paperless world, the
prospect for print news dims. Trends show that there will come a time when the
cost to print newspapers will be higher than the revenue they bring in. At that
point, printing will stop, and we’ll be that much closer to a completely
paperless world.
The move from print to online news will keep the newspaper
industry afloat, but the days of seeing print newspapers in almost every hand
are long gone, and that image will continue to fade.
Although
print newspapers may disappear by 2050, that doesn’t mean they won’t be missed. Consuming
news through the print medium is a distinctly satisfying experience,
offering benefits that other media cannot.
Television news has the tendency to be distracting, with
fast-moving graphics, mindless chitchat between anchors and commercial breaks.
The connection between the consumer and the news is one more step removed. I
blame my own short attention span for being distracted by anchors’ voices,
hairstyles and outfits, but I still consume less news than I do when reading a
newspaper.
Simplicity is one of the most appealing characteristics of a
newspaper. Never, when reading a newspaper, must you wait for a commercial to
end to continue engaging. Never must you endure an anchor’s unfortunate
personality to get to the information you seek.
This can be said about online newspapers, too, that provide few
distractions and bear likeness to the print newspaper. The print newspaper is
not without faults-it’s much bulkier than a slender smart phone, and if you
don’t have a subscription, dropping $2.50 on one weekday New York Times is
cringe worthy, especially if you’re not looking to read the whole thing. Print
newspapers present a kind of reliability that’s hard to come by now.
Barring a freak windstorm, a tangible print newspaper isn’t
going anywhere. Exclusively reading news on mobile and electronic devices
leaves the consumer vulnerable to potential technological pitfalls. Wi-Fi is
not always accessible or free, battery lives can die and electrical outlets,
while plentiful, don’t exist everywhere.
Not being able to access online news is rare, which is why it’s
not improbable to say that the 64 percent of Americans who predict the downfall
of newspapers by 2050 may be correct. Reading news on laptops and mobile
devices is convenient and fits comfortably into the lifestyles of many
Americans.
Still, the trustworthiness of a paper should not go
unacknowledged. Papers don’t require cords, plugs or batteries to provide hours
of information and entertainment.
The experience of reading a print newspaper is efficient,
enjoyable and free of frills but, if the aforementioned prediction is correct,
loyal newspaper readers have less than 40 years to cherish the dependability of
the aging medium and brace themselves for a day when it no longer exists.
Conclusion
Our
society is not yet paperless.
Electronic
postal systems are more popular than paper or parcel systems.
Electronic
postal systems are more efficient than paper or parcel systems by a factor of 2
to 5,000,000 in people needed to operate them.
Books are
still more popular than E-readers in terms of a single purchase.
Books are
reproduced using recycled material.
However
books still require an initial compilation of an electronic text to allow
printing.
E-Readers
by there technological nature can be re-used, recycled as a product by the user
and can connect to the electronic text of the book directly from the publisher.
Paper,
inks fuel, vehicles, jobs, do not need to be manufactured and therefore trees
can be retained for other environmentally friendly purposes such as bio fuels.
The
Carbon dioxide produced by the issue of a single letter is more than a single
email.
The
Carbon dioxide produced by all letters is less than that produced by all emails
due to the bulk of emails being sent.
The
analysis can be expanded to include public services.
If the
internet link is allowed for then schools, higher education, religions, doctors
consultancy, policing, military, transport booking stations, media studios,
theatres, film studios, music studios, radio studios, art galleries, museums,
science and development, manufacturers, publishers, libraries, administration
offices in settlements, utility companies and there associated buildings,
infrastructure, public realm, public identity, staff, supplies and energy can
be reduced and made redundant.
This
changes our world architecture to a domestic level.
It
becomes a home totally connected to the world using communication and
outputting for its inhabitants all their needs through 3d printing.
The home
is also research, manufacturing and publishing centre.
The home
is within walking distance of its settlement centre and so the occupants can
obtain everything locally each day.
The
devices used to send and view electronic media are becoming smaller.
It is
envisaged that the mobile phone and the communications system will integrate
into a device that is approx. the size of half an A4 sheet, A5, paper.
It is a
free device issued to all the people on the planet.
It has a
screen input and viewing area.
It
downloads or uses the software on a permanent, free, internet link.
It will
have keyboard, stylus, voice, and human bio-inputs.
It will be
charged by the user merely carrying it around with them.
A paper
society has existed since 200 BC from its origins in China.
A
paperless society is the direction we are moving in.
Its
direction is made more sure by the depletion of environment, resources and
energy by human populations.
We will
have a recycled packaging, paperless communication, society by 2050.
