Subject: Re: Traditionalist at newspaper helm From: WA@GURU1.SDA-ATS.CH.marketplace.com (Christoph J. WALTHER, SDA-Bern) Date: Sun, 30 Jul 1995 23:28 +0100

On Fri, 28 Jul 1995 19:57:45 -0700 outings@netcom.com (Steve Outing) wrote:

>  I'm no newspaper industry doomsayer; I believe it has a promising future, 
>  which is why I've chosen to work primarily with the newspaper industry 
>  to facilitate its evolution into digital delivery (the principal thrust of 
>  my consulting business). But Willes would appear to be naive, judging from 
>  that quote. Based on the experience of the last year, I don't expect the 
>  newsPAPER business to grow. It will likely stay flat and eventually decline 
>  slightly as more people -- especially younger ones -- rely on digital 
>  media for news and information.

Until recently, me too, I would have said that the newsPAPER business won't
grow unless it's going online. What then made me become less sure of such a
statement was this table, I came across in a trade publication for the
printing industry here in Switzerland:

        Estimate of paper consumption worldwide (in mio. tons)

                                1977        1993        2009
        newsprint                2.5        10.5         30.7
        printing papers          3.6        10.2         34.1
        tisues                   2.8         8.9         19.7
        packing materials       32          71.4        158

The source for this data is quoted as: R. Young, Resource Informations Systems,
USA.

Well, that's not exactly what members of this maillist typically discuss...
Much of the growth in the next years is attributed to countries in the Far
East, in South America and Eastern Europe. Also the FAO (UN organisation for
food an agriculture) is mentioned as expecting an annual growth of paper
consumption of 3.1 percent resulting in 440 mio. tons in the year 2010 (from
todays 250 mio. tons). A consequence of all this, the article states, is the
need for an increased usage of recyled papers.

So my question is: How do others look at this data, of course, especially in
regard of online news distribution? Will the U.S. and maybe Western European
markets go into a different direction because of the information highways?
Really??

	-- ChrisW

CHRIS J.      Swiss News Agency (SDA/ATS), Laenggass-Str. 7, CH-3001 Berne
WALTHER       voice: +41 (31) 309 3456/3333 -- FAX: +41 (31) 302 8238
Berne         e-mail: wa@sda-ats.ch (other addresses available upon request)
Switzerland   URL: under construction


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From rballard@cnj.digex.net Mon Sep 18 17:51:47 1995
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