Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Ink-on-Paper Economics
B-to-b publishers face imminent hike in paper prices
Ok, postal costs are rising again, and so are paper costs. While I'm not prepared to say that print, or even newspapers, are dead (see RexBlog for some thoughts on this point), ink-on-paper as a delivery mechanism is certainly on the decline.
As I posted earlier, we in print media should think of ourselves as "written word" media, in order to distinguish ourselves from primarily visual or audio media. How we distribute the written word--in print, through the mail, on the 'Net, or by email--is an economic decision, based on the cost in money to us and the cost in time and money to our audience.
Our friends at the Postal Service and the paper mills are helping us to make that decision.
Again, maybe I misunderstand supply and demand, but as demand tails off for postal service delivery and for rolls of number 5 coated groundwood, shouldn't prices recede? Nope, because the overheads have to be covered. So magazines shrink in size, and hard printing and distribution costs rise.
I look forward to the day when postal rates and paper prices decrease in an attempt to win back my business. Say, five years from now? But by then, I may have broken the habit of applying the written word to paper.
Note: Received the new Postal Service magazine, deliver, yesterday (2/22). Look forward to reading it on the plane today. Let's see, raise rates, but give magazine designed to show me how to use the mail system. The irony is heavy.
Comments
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Ok, postal costs are rising again, and so are paper costs. While I'm not prepared to say that print, or even newspapers, are dead (see RexBlog for some thoughts on this point), ink-on-paper as a delivery mechanism is certainly on the decline. As I posted earlier, we in print media should think of ourselves as "written word" media, in order to distinguish ourselves from primarily visual or audio media. How we distribute the written word--in print, through the mail, on the 'Net, or by email--is an economic decision, based on the cost in money to us and the cost in time and money to our audience.
Our friends at the Postal Service and the paper mills are helping us to make that decision.
Again, maybe I misunderstand supply and demand, but as demand tails off for postal service delivery and for rolls of number 5 coated groundwood, shouldn't prices recede? Nope, because the overheads have to be covered. So magazines shrink in size, and hard printing and distribution costs rise.
I look forward to the day when postal rates and paper prices decrease in an attempt to win back my business. Say, five years from now? But by then, I may have broken the habit of applying the written word to paper.
Note: Received the new Postal Service magazine, deliver, yesterday (2/22). Look forward to reading it on the plane today. Let's see, raise rates, but give magazine designed to show me how to use the mail system. The irony is heavy.
