Everyday our children our getting more and more concerned with what we our doing to our environment. Regulations around greenhouse gases and wetlands get tighter and tighter as we all learn the dangers of what we are doing to our planet. The newspaper industry certainly is not excused. The numbers are staggering.
Of course environmental concerns is only one of many reasons for the long and steady decline in overall circulation at newspapers but it can't be overlooked. That is why their is so much riding on" ePaper". Some publishers have been putting money aside for years so that when (not if) this tecnology becomes mainstream, they will be able to give away an ePaper reader to every subscriber they have. Several companies, LG, Philips LCD and E Ink, have made some substantial progress and even have early prototypes.
But the question remains, how much of a difference will ePaper make? Certainly it will make a difference since any significantly penetration can save millions in costs of labor, paper and the substantial amount of logistics that it takes to produce and distribute the paper everyday. But can it reverse the tough times ahead? Will people be willing to pay for a subscription to the news "paper" 5-10 years from now? Today's youth expect news to be free and that is a difficult trend to reverse. Just ask the RIAA.
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