In the year 2009-2010, nearly 86,800 workers in the print publishing industry were laid off, 4,200 print publishing workers lost their jobs just in the month of November 2010 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, New Employment Numbers). This can be seen as the negative effect of ongoing post-recession period of the economy of United States, however, the trend of diminishing jobs in the print publishing industry is not new and for many years, the available jobs in this particular industry are being reduced to minimal. The print publishing industry includes books, magazines, newspapers and direct-mail shops and similar works. In recent times, improved internet facilities have caused a huge negative impact on these services. In November 2010, major printing industry players such as Associated Press, Time Inc, Business Week and others reduced their staff to a significant number causing a decreased number of total workers in print publishing industry to 776,800 while the total number of people working in this category was 863,600 in November 2009.
The print publishing industry is obviously suffering a regular set-back and it is becoming a global phenomenon. In the month of November 2009, Catalyst Paper, a major pulp and paper mill established in Canada removed more than thousand of its workers as a result of the declining demand of various news prints. At the closure of the plant, the Catalyst Paper’s vice president Brian Johnson informed that the major reason for the closure of the mill is the “structural decline in the market, where people are reading less, fewer papers" and internet is evolving as the major source of infotainment (Declining readership blamed for Job loss, Digital Journal).
Nowadays, people prefer to use emails, online newspapers and blogs. Since people are now more interested in recently popular internet and online news sources, a big lot of consumers are deviating away from traditional print sources. As a result, the print media readership is declining significantly.Many well established printing houses such as ‘Seattle Post-Intelligencer’ which was working since last 146 years closed their shops because they were unable to attain the required advertizing revenues and in absence of funds, it was impossible to continue the printing press. The ‘Rocky Mountain News’ in Colorado closed their offices and then the San Francisco Chronicle announced to reduce their printing operations as they planned to concentrate more on their online news delivery operations. In the month of June 2010, a century old Hawaii based printing company ‘Honolulu Advertisers’ printed its last Sunday Edition and closed down its press after working for more than a hundred years. More than 400 journalists and other workers involved with the press media lost their job (Last issue of Century Old Honolulu Newspaper, Digital Journal)
The sad story of loss of jobs in printing press industry is becoming global and throughout the world, people are declining to use products of print media for various reasons. On Oct. 19, 2010, the New Zealand Herald publisher APN News & Media closed down its Manaku printing plant causing a job loss for 150 workers. (APN to close Printing plant, NZ Herald)
The picture is gloomy throughout the world and the major reason for this set-back for the printing industry is the decreased interest of consumers in printing media. With the establishment of various national and international news channels on television, people found a faster and reliable form of news media that was eager to provide better ways of news delivery. The gradual shift of interest of the consumers from the print media to digital media started in the late 1940’s and since then, lesser people are willing to read news papers, weekly and monthly magazines and books.
In 1945, when NBC began its ambitious news broadcasting program, the print media started facing a dominant competition in the industry of news delivery. Radio and television news delivery started establishing itself as a better medium for spreading news items. Television not only established itself as the major entertainer, but also proved to be a significant news provider. People found that watching television for fun is much better than trying to read an interesting book. In the past, parents used to inculcate reading habits in their children. Comic and story books were in demand as they used to be considered as the best friends of children during their holidays. Nowadays, children prefer to watch cartoon networks and enjoy playing various video and computer games. According to a report by CEEP (Center for Evaluation and Education Policy), the data collected in 2006 revealed that the book purchases per student is constantly declining and it declined by 26.3% during the year 2004 to 2006. The report also mentioned that while the prices of printed books are continuously increasing, the number of staff members in libraries is decreasing regularly. (2006 trends of Library Services, CEEP)
While the printing press industry was finding it difficult to compete with the attraction of television as the major entertaining medium for the public, news paper industry survived because people found it more satisfying to read local and regional news in more detailed format than a national or international TV news channel could provide. Furthermore, people found that it is hard for a TV news channel to cover every bit of local news during the short period of 30 seconds. Thus, however, television ruined a big portion of market for the print media; print media was able to sustain itself in the competitive environment.
The very first internet network were established because of the ongoing technological competition between the US and USSR during the years of cold war. At the end of cold war with the degradation of USSR, the new technology of internet became open for innovations and since then, internet started to establish itself as the major and most successful medium for advertisement, news delivery, entertainment, social networking and communication. Soon people found that they can instantly pass on the messages to their friends, relatives and colleagues working at different places. As a result, people stopped writing letters; they had better means to interact with each other. Not only they were able to send important information through emails, they could actually interact with each other through instant messaging. As a result, a lot many workers in postal services became redundant. Earlier, they used to deliver urgent printed official newspapers, but with the advent of internet, officials found a more secure and faster way of sharing official data through internet.
Now when more and more people are interested in the online news papers, social communities and blog spheres and the internet is establishing itself as the major medium for infotainment, printing industry is struggling to survive. Through this article, we will study the declining importance of print media and how it is difficult for print industry to survive in the current scenario of recession. We will also find out why the consumers are declining the traditional habits of reading news papers, books and magazines. We will also emphasize over the effects of global declination of print media over the market and the environment.
The diminishing Impact of Printing Press
The invention of printing press was considered as the major inspiration for individual liberty that had huge potential to bring radical social and political changes throughout the world. In the year 1641, Samuel Hartlib, a British social and cultural reformer mentioned that "the art of printing will so spread knowledge that the common people, knowing their own rights and liberties, will not be governed by way of oppression.” The governments and religious authorities including the churchmen tried to suppress the revolutionary effects of the printing press. The printing press made it possible for the common man to study the religious texts and other politically important content freely without the controlling mediation by the political and religious authorities. Before the invention of printing press, there hardly was any need for the common man to attain the ability to read text. The population was majorly dependent on the clergymen and higher authority to attain the controlled information and it was very easy to control the populace. To maintain that stronghold on the public, most of the religious authorities throughout the world, including the Orthodox Church and the religious clerics in the Muslim world opposed the printing press. Muslim authorities specially prohibited press to print anything especially in Arabic or Turkish language as these were the languages of general usage.
The printing press had enough potential to bring colossal changes in the thinking process of the common man. The press allowed the idiosyncratic, revolutionary and radical thinkers to directly express their views and ideas in the public domain. The press provided the required ammunition for the radicals to bring about the major changes and revolutions including the French revolution and the American Revolution that paved the way for the first printed draft acclaiming the enlightenment principles and inalienable rights for the citizens. The press played a major role in removing the hierarchical system of absolute monarchy and kingships and supported the new system of Democratic government with the promise for transparency and freedom for the individual citizen to decide for their own fate. The Press played the major role in most of the revolutions throughout the world as it became the fastest manner to spread ideas and viewpoints of the revolutionaries in the masses.
A great many religious, social, and political thinkers and revolutionaries used the press to bring about changes in life of common citizens throughout the world and it became as the elementary for the globalization of the nations. Yet, with the advent of Internet, the press became redundant and inefficient means to spread the news, ideas and viewpoints. Internet made it infinitely easy to spread awareness and information. With the help of e-books, blogs, personal websites, social chat forums and many other simple ways, people attained the power to express their ideas instantaneously without any restriction. The government and religious authorities were able to control the press by establishing various censorship authorities over press and there hardly was ever such a period when the press enjoyed full freedom and right of expression, yet all the governments and religious authorities failed to stop the fastest growing medium for spreading information. With the advent of internet, it became very easy for radical thinkers to express their views against the established norms. Internet gave way for the common citizen to experience the power of freedom of expression to a much greater extent. As a result, most of the thinkers, politically active idea makers, social and cultural revolutionaries stopped using printing press to spread their ideas in masses.
Earlier, thinkers used newspapers, magazines, books and journals to spread awareness by means of printed articles. The printing press thus was very lively in providing work for all those who were engaged in bringing social, religious, political and cultural changes. Many evangelical groups used to contact printing press to provide volumes of religious texts to be distributed in masses. The internet simply destroyed all such jobs for the common man because now anyone can publish their ideas and viewpoints without any restriction with the help of World Wide Web and blogs. Nowadays, even the evangelical and religious groups prefer to use internet to spread spiritual awareness. There hardly are any groups involved with the work of distributing printed Bibles and other important religious texts in masses. However, many Christian organizations have their own website and they offer free CD’s, DVD’s and e-books in place of paper books. The targeted visitors on such websites can download this evangelical religious content freely on their computer or similar digital devices including iPods, iphones and netbooks. Such a change obviously caused a major reduction of jobs as now there is no need to involve people for distributing religious books and cassettes in masses. The religious organizations don’t need to employ transportation mediums and dealers to distribute the books and other printed religious material in different regions throughout the state, nation and world. Any religious organization can spread its functional religious ideas with the help of a computer and internet connection to the farthermost part of the world. The most they will need is to engage proper internet advertisement and promotional service providers.
Internet is a faster medium and when compared with printing media, it is very difficult to censor internet. Before publishing a critical article or report in print format, the publishers will need to proof read the printed content and will have to check the validity of the facts. Workers will be required to check whether the content to be published is verified and original. The whole system will require team workers to publish a report and make it available for the common masses. On the other hand, anyone can publish a piece of informative article with proper verification without needing any co-worker. The internet has not only reduced the workload of writers, it has reduced the employment possibilities for a large section of people. The internet is winning the race because people can easily attain the required information and entertaining content without actually paying for it as it is freely available on the internet. The providers of content on the other hand make big money through revenues of the sponsored advertizing links using the promotional programs such as Google Adsense. As internet makes it possible for the consumers to enjoy the required infotainment free of cost, they are ignoring the printing press which is the traditional medium for infotainment.
The losing grip of print media on Social activities
In 1985, Lord Acton described the role of Print media in improving the social relations by exclaiming that the Print bestowed “assurance that the work of the Renaissance would last, that what was written would be accessible to all, that such an occultation of knowledge and ideas as had depressed the Middle Ages would never recur, that not an idea would be lost.” The printing press became a power for social and cultural activities. Social revolutionaries including Descartes, Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant, Voltaire, John Locke, Karl Marx and many more made good use of printing press to make their ideas last forever. In order to gather and spread social awareness, thinkers and philosophers used printed books, newspapers, and pamphlets.
Because of printing press, people started to invest their time and money to teach themselves and their kids. Literacy became a trend and a huge industrial sector of printing press was established to provide books, daily, weekly and monthly magazines, newspapers, and informative pamphlets. To keep themselves informed, people stressed over literacy and that brought a social uplifting of whole society. Gradually, printing press and writing practices became the backbone of social relationships. People started using printed letters and journals to share information and entertainment and a whole department of postal services was evolved to make it possible for people to send their letters from one region to other throughout the world. Printing press got its wings with the help of postal services working throughout the nation. International postal services became a strong medium for business and cultural activities in between various countries of different continents. The printing press gave way for a number of job streams to evolve in the market. Manufacturers and merchants started using printed pamphlets for advertisement and promotional programs for their products. Printing press became the major source of attracting consumers for various products including home appliances.
Local newspapers became a medium for spreading information about local events. Thus, printing press became the backbone of the market and that gave rise for a number of employment opportunities in the printing press. The local press was also used to inform the related people about the familial programs such as wedding parties, birth and marriage anniversaries and to invite them through the printed invitation cards in beautiful and attractive patterns. Proper local services were used to distribute these invitation cards for all related people and friends living in different regions of the city and state. Teenagers and youth used to distribute greeting cards to celebrate and to congratulate their friends on special events such as birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Xmas, Halloween and many similar occasions. Nowadays, printing press is losing its grip at every front.
In place of using postal services that obviously takes much more time and manpower to deliver local and person information, common men started using instant messengers and emails to remain in contact with their friends and relatives. It is far easier to maintain social network with the help of internet. Technology has reduced the use of manpower in maintaining social networking to the limits of minimal. In place of spreading awareness about their products, local and national merchants use options of internet marketing as more and more people prefer to shop online. As a result, the printing press is suffering a huge loss of demand. Since there is lack of demand, supply is to be reduced and that is causing a huge loss of employment opportunities in social spectrum. The younger generation prefers digital medium to interact with friends and relatives. It is the era of Facebook and Twitter and one can easily remain in contact with their friends throughout the day without losing a minute with the help of their internet supporting mobile phones and iphones. In place of sending printed greeting cards and congratulatory letters, people prefer to send SMS and emails. With the help of Skype, one can easily contact with their friends anytime and talk with them. Recently, video conferencing is becoming a popular trend in the younger generation and now it is possible for different people living in different parts of the world to talk with each other as if they are sitting in the same room. All these technological aspects of internet have reduced the role of printing press to maintain social network and to arrange social activities. Now, in place of sending invitation letters for the guests on your birthday or marriage party, you can simply invite them personally with the use of video conferencing or email or instant messengers like Yahoo messenger, MSN messenger, Gmail and Gtalk, Skype, and many other services. Thus, internet has offered many services that can be used to interact with each other and it obviously is a great achievement for the society, however, internet has caused a vanishing effect on many jobs related with printing press.
Instead of looking for the classified section of a newspaper to attain information about Death Notice, notice of a lost item, marriage announcement, job vacancy announcement, a list of someone’s ancestors, directions to Dallas Texas, land for sale, payment of debt notice, or something for sale in the market, you will prefer to check the local newspaper website to attain all required information. Since there is little requirement of printed newspapers, hardly anyone is needed to distribute printed newspapers and pamphlets. Rather than buying a Hallmark or Archies greeting cards for a price, you will prefer to send free but more exciting and attractive internet based greeting cards provided by some commercial website for free. It is so easy for the internet based business to offer free internet based gifts and greetings for your friends but it will be simply impossible for a printing press to deliver your greetings for your friends on their birthdays for free of cost.
Instead of looking for a newspaper to check out the ongoing plays and movie shows in the local theatres, you will prefer to gather the information about all the cultural and sports events scheduled in your city instantaneously by searching for the relevant websites. You even don’t need to fill the printed reservation form for reserving a ticket for the popular play going on in a grand theatre. One can simply book a seat for the scheduled play on internet. Internet facilities can be used to make railways and airlines reservations right from your home. You don’t need to send a printed form to reserve a hotel in a different country, with the help of hotel software and the business website; you can instantaneously book a hotel room for your next summer vacation.
People have simply forgotten the usage of inland letters and postal cards. The idea of having pen friends is so redundant because now, you can date with your girl friend or boyfriend living in the exotic world with the help of dating and friendship websites. By using Facebook and Twitter, you can make new friends living in different part of the nation and the same social platforms can be used to spread news, awareness and emotions. While the new technology has made it possible for us to interact with each other with utmost ease, the same technology has reduced the usefulness of manpower to maintain social relationships and as a result, a huge number of job opportunities have been culminated in the sector of print media.
Vulnerability of Printed Press
The printing press industry is a major business sector across the world. According to some estimates, more than 45 trillion pages were printed in the year 2005. Around 30,700 printing companies were working in the United States in the year 2006. In the ‘2006 U.S. Industry & Market Outlook,’ Barnes Reports suggested that the printing share includes a market asset of $112 billion.
Despite of its hugeness, this giant printing press industry is losing its market. In the year 2009, 105 newspapers were shuttered down while; more than 10,000 jobs were lost in the newspaper industry. The market data further reveals that in the year 2009, newspapers and printed magazines lost a 30% share of print ad sales. In addition, the top 23 newspapers of the United States reported that their newspaper circulation declined by 7% to 20%. In the year 2010, 61 more newspapers were closed by the month of July (The Year the Newspaper Died, Preethi Dumpala). It is true that the reason for such a huge loss of the printing press was majorly because of the declining market activities during the period of recession, but the trends suggest that even if the market gains complete recovery, the printing press industry is unlikely to gain its lost glory. The only reason for printing press is undoubtedly the internet.
The internet facilities to promote and advertise the market products are gradually eating up the major share of print ad sales. Despite the recent deep recession periods, internet giants like Google made huge profits and the major source of the profits of Google is the internet digital ad revenues system. More and more people are taking interest in internet business activities because of its bigger reach and better facilities that are available at cheap rates. One doesn’t need to invest money to promote and advertise about their products on the local newspapers through print medium. People even prefer not to use printed pamphlets and big printed banners to promote their businesses in the local communities. Internet marketing is the major tool to attain success in the market. Internet based advertisements are stronger, more efficient and they are cheaper. Furthermore, it is useless to waste paper for printed advertisements especially during the periods when the whole society is concerned about the environmental issues. People prefer not to use papers and hence, printing press is becoming vulnerable to the slightest of the market disturbances.
Just a few years ago, there were many book shops where one could get disposable books that were cheaply printed in attractive formats without thinking about the sustainability and longevity of the books. Every new month, people used to buy a variety of magazines discussing about sports, cosmetics, Hollywood movies, celebrities, economic issues, social issues, health issues and a lot more. All the reporters, journalists, editors, proof readers, publishers, distributers and others involved with these cheap local printing presses were busy in making money at the cost of the environment. Most of such cheaply printed books and magazines were produced to use once and then they were thrown away in the bin. Hardly there used to be a magazine that could inspire us to keep it safe for long periods. Nowadays, we seldom look to buy a book. Most of the famous classical books and novels are available on internet. Despite of the copyright laws, it is hard to restrict people from sharing the classical and original books in the e-format. With the help of sharing facilities, we can share e-books and other important documents that could be difficult to share with each other in printed format. Thus, one would like to buy an e-book rather than a printed version of a classic novel such as Atlas Shrugged, the magnum opus of Ayn Rand. Irrespective of all the intellectual property rights, it is not very difficult to attain an internet-version of popular books. Furthermore, there are many reading software available on the internet market that makes it much easier for the readers to read books on the internet. During the times of desktops, people used to believe that printed books are still better because one can read them at any place. One cannot move their heavy desktop to the home garden to read an e-book but one can read a paper book at any place. The evolution of laptops and further smaller netbooks made the printed books completely redundant. Nowadays, it is easier to download the e-version of Kane and Abel, the popular novel by Jeffery Archer and to read it on your netbook or Apple Ipad. Instead of reading a book, you can also prefer to hear the story of the book with the help of downloadable books in MP3 format. Internet books are obviously more attractive and easy to use and hence, more and more people are attracted towards using their computer to read books, newspapers and magazines. As a result, the printing industry is losing its revenues through advertisements. The e-books don’t create mess even if you want to dispose them off. If you don’t like a document on your computer, you can delete it without causing any tangible waste. Internet has become a huge source of information and entertainment. If you want to attain information about any product, process, or subject of social, historical, cultural, entertainment or economical importance, you can attain the required information with the help of various search engines that are known to offer free information about anything and everything possible.
Since the internet based digital media is becoming more and more popular, there hardly are any chances that the print media will resurge with the improvement in the market. Thus, the loss of jobs in the print media sector that was caused due to the closure of many printing presses in United States will never be recovered. There were days when people used to buy dictionaries, thesaurus, and printed encyclopedias to attain useful information and knowledge. Nowadays, dictionaries and encyclopedias are available online. One doesn’t need to invest money to attain information about any subject. Freely available dictionaries and encyclopedias such as Wikipedia have reduced the worth of printed dictionaries and voluminous encyclopedias. Obviously, people cannot start using the paper books and dictionaries again because the same knowledge is freely available on internet. Furthermore, one can directly attain the required information about any particular subject by using the internet search engine. The MSN Encarta and Britannica Encyclopedia are available in digital format on internet that can be used on your computer. In place of buying the old copies of printed books and newspapers for researching about a particular object, you can use online journals provided by online reference websites such as Questia.com to collect verified information and journals. The online digital books are obviously better source of information and hence the printed paper books are becoming more and more redundant and unattractive.
During the early 1960’s, Spider Man became the superhero of United States with the help of printed comic books. Such comic books not only gave a huge boon for the printing press, but these comic books also provided a chance for the parents to inculcate reading habits in their kids. Nowadays, children just don’t like the idea of reading comic books or story books. Rather they would prefer to watch a favorite comic character on YouTube or other online video service provider. In place of reading a paper book to learn about the geography of United States, the kids will prefer to browse through the pages of Wikipedia or MSN Encarta to attain all the information about the geography of United States. Thus, there is no need of printing comic books and story books as there hardly are any consumer for the printed version of books. This is a serious setback for the printing presses and publishing agencies and there hardly is a way to save the dying printing press from its inevitable end.
Lack of Market Support for Printing Press
A few years ago, the local and regional daily newspapers and weekly or monthly magazines were used to be the major resource for market studies and market researches. During those days, the best way to arrange for wedding party on a limited budget was to research about the price listings for the various ornaments, wedding dresses and cosmetic accessories in various newspapers in the classified sections. The local organizations providing services for wedding arrangements used to distribute printed copies of their service menu. There were a number of real estate offices providing information about the available banquet halls, hotels and restaurants available to be booked for arranging wedding parties in advance and the information for the booking registry were used to be provided in printed format on paper. Nowadays, you can perform a thorough market research for analyzing the price difference of the same articles of different brands. In place of reading a product review in some paper magazine after buying it, you can simply read the customer reviews about a particular product freely available on internet. Internet shopping is becoming the favorite trend. This is why, most of the local, regional and national manufacturers and service providers are using internet as the most influential medium to promote and advertise their products. A series of attractive online press-releases can be used to inform the local consumers about the new shopping mall or showroom to be opened in the market. If you want to launch a new product, the best way to promote it in the local and regional market is to use Search Engine Optimization techniques to bring most of the targeted visitors to your internet based promotional letters, press releases and product and services reviews. Not only local manufacturers, vendors and distributors are using the internet to promote their products and services, the big multinational companies and manufacturers are more dependent on internet based advertisements and marketing programs. In pace of publishing product related articles and reviews in various business magazines and newspapers, companies prefer to launch a huge and highly effective marketing program on internet. The reason is, internet marketing is cheaper, highly efficient and it offers more reach for the advertisers, promoters, marketers and producers. Along with the local consumers, one can attain national and international consumers for their products and services. As a result, productions houses and companies prefer the internet media over the printing press to advertisement about their products and services. As the market is supporting the internet based media over printing press, the number of jobs in the printing press sector is also diminishing.
Even the local and national banks prefer to issue the lists of foreclosures and other real estate related information on internet. You can opt for the insurance plans and saving plans through online services. Apply for home loans, automobile loans and educational loans without visiting any bank office and you will not be needed to fill any printed form to get the required loan. Many lending organizations prefer to use the internet to attract the consumers to attain the fastest and easiest available loan facilities. If you want to analyze the prices of land properties of buildings in a particular area, the best option is to perform an internet based research to check out the available options. Most of the real estate agents prefer to offer attractive deals on their commercial websites. As a result lesser and lesser printed pages are issued for informing the potential clients about the real estate market. If you want to sell a piece of property in a particular community or city, the best way to attract the favorite buyers is to use internet marketing. If you want to let a house on rent, internet based real estate directories are the best place to market your property. Anyone can sell their products using the Ebay and Craigslist options.
Marketers prefer to use the internet based marketing and advertising programs because the consumers prefer to remain online throughout the day. People have acquired the addiction of internet. They use internet to read latest news items, to chat and discuss with friends through Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, Gtalk, Skype, Twitter and MSN. Since they spend most of the time on internet, the producers and marketers prefer to grab their attention on the internet. Hence, internet marketing is winning against the printing press sector and as the market works in accordance with the habit of consumers, the lack of interest of consumers in printed version of information is becoming the cause of the death of printing press.
The internet is better option to make lists of social information. If you want to explore about the phone numbers and price listing of hotels or restaurants or hospitals in a particular city, you don’t need to flip the print pages of a yellow page or phone number directory, everything will be made available for you on the screen of your laptop by the help of Google, MSN Bling or Yahoo search engine. If you are planning a summer vacation tour, the best guide for the new place is the internet and you don’t need to buy a local travelling guide book to know about the popular picnic spots of the chosen destination of your vacation, the internet will provide all information regarding the favorite places, best restaurants and hotels for dining and wining experiences and a lot more about the history, geography and cultural importance of the destination of your choice. Internet has surely increased the available information for the common masses and this is because everyone is free to share the information they have without any restriction on the internet and often they share the important pieces of information free of cost. As a result, lesser people are willing to buy printed versions of the same information. As a result, market is ignoring the printing press and this is becoming the reason for the loss of jobs in printing sector.
Internet, printing media and education
Recently, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offered a unique way for the national and international students to pursue their education with the help of internet by putting up all the courses online. With the help of online classes, Professor Rebecca Henderson of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who offer course in advanced strategy to comprehend the long-term roots of some companies to be exceptionally successful, you can complete your study even if you are living in London or Paris or Singapore. With the help of internet based educational classes and course material, the educational institutes and international universities are opting for ways to attract more and more international students for their degree courses. Since the last two years, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is providing online courses with all related study and research material for the students and it is becoming the popular trend to attend online classes as it is better, cheaper and easier method to pursue your studies. Students find it easy to go through the whole educational course available online rather going through the bulky paper print books that seems to be too heavy and boring most of the times (For Exposure, Universities Put Courses on the Web, The New York Times).
According to their deal with OpenCourseWave Consortium, in the year 2001, the M.I.T announced to put whole of its course catalog online for the students. This new trend of global Open Educational Resources Movement whose purpose is to try to share the world’s knowledge with everyone who is willing to learn and educate themselves is becoming hugely popular in the youth. Thus, now internet is becoming the major source of education, studies, research works and reading. Hence, students don’t need printed course books. Everything is made available on internet and a big part of this hugely worthy educational data is available freely or at very cheap rates. Obviously, it is a big blow for the printing press. Now, one can attain a proper educational qualification or degree even without filling a printed application form. The whole education and knowledge can be attained without using any paper book, copy, pen or pencil.
In the year 1994, Robert J. McGovern developed software with the help of which, the companies could list the job vacancies and opening on their commercial websites. The software also helped the companies and offices to manage the incoming e-mails regarding the job applications that were sent in response to the available job vacancies. Soon, a surge of employment websites came over internet that reduced the market of printing press to much lower limits. Now, we don’t need to use printed application forms to apply for educational or professional vacancies. People don’t use the employment newspapers because they can attain the latest news about the open vacancies and jobs available in the private companies, governmental or corporate offices and social organizations with the help of these employment websites. In place of sending a printed version of your curriculum vitae along with the photocopy of your printed educational credentials, a scanned copy of your credentials and digital curriculum vitae can be used to apply for jobs. It is the better and easier method to apply for jobs. Thus, the companies don’t need to invest money on issuing printed job application forms; they don’t need employees to take care of the bulk of job application forms from the potential workers and they don’t need to resend printed invitations for job interviews for the applicants. Everything can be done on internet. Many companies prefer to interview the potential employers online and there are many workers who perform their duties right from their home on internet. Thus, internet is not only reducing the use and necessity of printing press, it is also allowing people to work right from their home.
The internet and digital media is approaching towards a situation where one will not need a paper, pen or printing press for any essential work. Everything can be performed with the help of digital ways of maintaining documents. Clerks don’t need to use printed logs to document information; managers don’t need to maintain printed labor logs to manage pay accounts and officers don’t need to check the files of printed documents for business deals and clarification. A digital version of every important book or paper is possible and since the digital media is preferable, print media is losing its worth and place.
Print on Demand Publishing
Print on demand which is also known as publishing on demand business process is a way to resolve the issues of failure of print media and to reduce the wastage of resources. These days, most of the authors, publishing houses and print press companies prefer to opt for publish on demand business deals that ensures that the new printed copies of a book or journal, novel or any other document will not be printed until there is a demand for the printed version of that article. The print of demand techniques came in the market only after the evolution of digital media. Initially, it was not economically viable for the traditional printing and publishing houses to issue a single or very limited number of print versions of a book or journal. Nowadays, when the demand for printed version of books is surely decreasing to a great extent, it became impossible for the printing houses to offer limited number of printed books on demand while using the same traditional movable printing press. As a result, most of the printing press houses adopted the latest digital printing techniques that allow the publishers to use their digital printing press techniques to print and publish a limited number of copies for a book or novel.
Print on demand technique makes it certain that if you require a particular book in print format, you can actually get it at an affordable rate because there are printing press publishers who will offer you a single copy of the book in print. Often authors and publishers uses Amazon Kindle, Ebay, Craigslist and other similar facilities to advertize and offer the chance for interested people to attain a printed version of their favorite book. Any author, who has written a particular book, can offer the choice of print on demand through internet shop-carts like Ebay, Craigslist, Amazon Kindle and others. They may also market their books through print on demand techniques by using a blog and promotional website. Print on demand technique offer a chance for authors and publishers to allow printed version of new and old books for the limited people who actually like to read paper books in print version. While this technique offer a relief for the authors who could not have got a chance to publish their books in printed version because of very less demand, the technique also confirms that the market for publishing houses and printing press is reducing to significantly alarming levels.
The digital printing process of print on demand is a little higher than the offset printing press facilities; however, if one requires a single printed copy, digital printing facilities are highly cheap. One can easily get the printed version of books, application forms, articles, news reports, economic data and various other documents from the internet on paper through digital printing facilities. The increasing popularity of print on demand processing suggest that internet media is becoming the major platform for all sort of business documentation while printing press is getting in the shoes of secondary medium. This obviously is decreasing the opportunities of jobs in print industry because it is far easier to handle digital print services and it requires lesser man power.
Conclusion:
It is beyond any doubt that the printing press is losing its ground and it is at the verge of extinction. The only possible way to sustain the market of printing press is to reduce the usefulness and popularity of internet. However, it would be impossible to persuade the common men to reduce the use of internet because internet is surely a better and easier medium to spread information and awareness in the masses. Internet is more attractive and colorful way of attaining information, education, knowledge and progress. Internet has made it possible to distribute highly objective information and knowledge for the common man free of cost, consumers can easily attain all the required infotainment without investing a single penny. On the other hand, to keep a printing press alive, one will need proper resources of investment. Since the consumers are not willing to pay for the same information in printed format that is freely available on internet, it is impossible for the printing press to survive in the market. It is hard to provide free information and knowledge for anyone without making use of internet.
The social organizations and governments also prefer not to help the printing press because of the environmental concerns involved with the usage of printing press and papers. The paper used by printing press raises the environmental concerns. It is hard to maintain paper for long times. Digital media on the other hand is safer and long lasting. The digital internet media is proving to be greener option and it surely is smarter and faster option. There hardly is a point to wait for a daily newspaper to know about the recent situation in Afghanistan if all the information is available instantaneously through internet services like twitter and Facebook and a long list of internet based news websites. The newspaper agencies and printing press companies are playing in the news and information business and not in the newspaper business. The death of Newspaper and print media is inevitable; however, the news agencies will survive. Most of the libraries full of printed books are becoming redundant and to survive in the market many of them are trying to convert their book collection in internet based formats. On an average, craigslist.org gets about 3 billion hits a month and about 1.4 million unique visitors a month. The newspaper classified can never compete with such a great rush on internet. The internet based employment websites are the fastest ways to attain all the required information about available job vacancies, hardly anyone will prefer to search for jobs in the employment news section of a newspaper. People are too busy these days and hardly anyone have time to read a newspaper separately; on the other hand, one can attain all the daily news while working on their computers through internet. It seems impossible to suggest kids to opt for reading printed books especially when it is well known that browsing through educational websites available on internet will help the kids to gain more knowledge and information. Many educational institutes and organizations offer children-oriented websites to offer entertaining and educational content for the kids that can help the parents to offer the best possible educational medium for their kids. Most of the schools and educational institutes are encouraging the teachers to make use of computers and internet technology in their classes as it is more effective and learner friendly way to spread knowledge and information. The benefits of digital media and internet over newspapers, books and printing press suggest that the death of print media is inevitable.
