In putting together this Seasons Greetings posting to all our PressDisplay and SmartEdition readers, I thought about writing a jingle and then I thought about rewriting “I’m dreaming of a white green Xmas”, but because we had our Christmas party last night and I’m a bit tired today :), I thought I’d keep it short and sweet and share with you a new limerick I just wrote:
Ode to a tree
There once was a tree standing tall
Sadly destined to join the great fall
Printed news was its fate,
Til subscribers yelled, “Wait!”
“Read online – make life better for all!”
Okay, I’ll stick to my day job
All kidding aside, the NewspaperDirect Digital Team would like to send all of our PressDisplay and SmartEdition readers a big thank you for saying no to newprint and helping us save our forests. Have a very happy holiday and we look forward to serving you in 2008!
As many of you know, Adget was launched earlier this fall and was recognized by CNN and Business 2.0 as one of the top 10 products, ideas and trends for 2007.
Today, Hawthorne TV profiled Adget in their Video Active Report, calling it “pretty nifty” – check it out:
Adget has really captured the attention of publishers and advertisers alike because it makes newspaper advertising more interactive and engaging for readers. As you can see by this article below, CanWest is already using NewspaperDirect’s Adget platform to supplement its movie review column by including trailers of upcoming movies.
The article shares data from Swedish researchers who claim “the environmental impact of one year of consumption of a printed newspaper is less than the impact of reading news online for more than 30 minutes a day.”
Hmmm….really…..
Reading on, I discovered that the research was sponsored in part by the Swedish Newspaper Publishers’ Association. That made me a little suspicious, but let’s keep an open mind. I’d like to see the details of that research because the story only skims the surface of what was studied. If anyone has access to the actual research, please send it my way…
Because I have some questions…
Did the analysis include the gas needed to deliver the printed papers to subscribers and the amount of CO2 which would otherwise be processed by a full grown tree over its entire life?
Did the research consider that computers are multi-purpose devices which make them, by nature, more eco-friendly than say a dedicated device like the Kindle? It would greatly surprise me if Kindle users didn’t have computers at home and/or at work. How can buying two devices be greener than one? Just consider the extra manufacturing and logistical costs of producing and shipping Kindle devices. Shouldn’t we, as consumers, try to keep our devices down to a minimum for the sake of convenience as well as for the environment?
As for the electricity consumed by viewing it on a device we already own and can amortize the environment costs across all of the activies we do on it - it just has to be less then running a printing press, producing ink, folding & delivering the newspaper – not to mention recycling (which is not energy efficient in itself by any means).
Anyway…intuitively, I don’t get their results. It just doesn’t sound quite right to me. What do you think?
I was reading one of my favorite blog sites today – Good Morning Silicon Valley (I discovered them when they gave PressDisplay.com two thumbs up earlier this year ). I often find tidbits of good information from them and entertaining stories and industry gossip.
Today was no exception. In their “Off Topic” section they gave kuddos to the video Here Comes Another Bubble by the Richter Scales. They said is was “quite possibly the funniest short video about the Silicon Valley experience ever set to a Billy Joel song.”
Now if it was just a funny video (which is really is, especially if you live in the Internet world like we do at PressDisplay.com), it would be worth sharing for just that reason. But when I saw this part of the video, I knew that there was a message in here for those of you in the publishing business.
There is no doubt that the newspaper industry is going through a serious evolution, if not a revolution that the song blatantly says here. The Internet has changed the world and the way people see the world and interact in the world.
Some newspapers are slow to accept this fact (at their own peril) and hide behind tradition, saying, ”There will always be people who want to read the printed word!” Perhaps…but will there be enough? We think not and thankfully our publishers agree with us and are taking great strides to, not only evolve and offer full content digital editions to their readers, they are adopting new advertising platforms to monetize them – they are leading the revolution for others to follow.
This video should be watched by every publisher out there. The “Times”, They are Achanging (just another song I threw in to see if anyone was paying attention). It’s not a matter of “if” anymore, but “when”.
