I want to start off with a couple of interesting stories that indicate that publishers are “waking up and smelling the coffee”, as it were. A statement this week from the publisher and chairman of The New York Times, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., comes top of the list: “We will stop printing the New York Times sometime in the future, date TBD,” [read TBA in UK!] he told attendees of the International Newsroom Summit. Just to recognise publicly that the printed edition of one of the world’s most recognised newspaper titles has to disappear is a significant and thought provoking statement. One might hope that all companies involved heavily in such a process would already have discussed the potential of newspapers gradually declining and eventually disappearing, but somehow having it spelt out in public makes a difference! Our thanks go to the good folk of Mashable for bringing us this news.
Print CEO brings us another interesting take on the same topic comes from Australia, where publishers are looking at the potential of what I might describe as a mobile phone style model of business: heavily subsidised e-reader hardware in exchange for a long term subscription.Meanwhile actually in the current world of print, the good money making chaps at De La Rue appear to have introduced error into their work where there should be none! It’s reportedly going to cost them a good £35 million, which is possibly slightly larger than an error from most printers foul ups!
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A Yorkshire print consortium has announced that it has made great strides towards the commercially viable production of printed electronics. We believe that this is a truly exciting opportunity for print, and illustrates and printing still has a realistic and viable future, even if it moving the business off into a whole different area. For more on this topic see the Printed Electronics web site.Another area where print has to win over digital media is in the world of packaging, but bad news for the board printers of the world this week with another price hike announced by Iggesund Paperboard. Cost increases and shortages in supply are making life tough for the packaging printers. For the brighter side of packaging life, take a look at what is in store for visitors to the easyFairs Packaging Innovations, London, event taking place on October 7 and 8 at the Design Centre, Islington.
Shifting over to “new media”, an interesting set of thoughts from the good people of Mashable are on offer re the next five years in social media; good reading if you are in social media, essential reading if you think you should be more involved with social media!More from the world of soon to arrive tablets as Engadget brings news of new product from the monitor people ViewSonic; one from a possible four models that will be coming. Trouble is this doesn’t seem to be bringing that much to the party: another seven inch Android based product is unlikely to set the world aflame me thinks! Mind you, the ViewPad7 and its ilk might just create a huge wave of product that drives the price down, putting a tablet in everyone’s hands . . . !
Then, this very morning, we get even more news from the ViewSonic stable: under the slightly less catchy title MB-P702, the company steams in with a combined e-reader and movie player. Wow, something for everyone!Google, meanwhile, as you will surely have heard already (it even made the financial slot on BBC News this very morning) has given us search fiends an instant capability. Our chums at Lifehacker have even given us some short cuts to make search even quicker! Just how quick to you want it to be? Answers to PIND.editor@gmail.com
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