“Do you think can we will be completely paperless by 2050? ”

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.