Blown to Bits

Frank takes a trip through the graveyard of printed products with other print enthusiasts. The electronic age has seen the virtual elimination of most road maps, annual reports, phone books, forms and other products that can be replaced by electronic methods. We have gone from atoms to bits. As Benny Landa has said, “Whatever can go digital, will go digital.” 

Sean Smyth 

Could I add listing paper? We used to change from five green lines to brown in July for three months and then revert - two make-readies a year - airline tickets and travelers' cheques, car tax licenses and diaries. We used them as a summer filler after the report and accounts season was over. And my football club has stopped printing a match program.

Frank Cost 

Yet we all continue to eat atoms, not bits. Remember the famous line in "The Graduate" that ended with the word "plastics?" If they ever remake that movie, the word will be "atoms."

Pete Basiliere 

"Why ship atoms when you can transmit bits?"

Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder of the MIT Media Lab and the first investor in WIRED magazine, asked that question in his 1995 best-seller, "Being Digital." I have a 25-year-old printed, hard-cover copy of Negroponte's book that is, yes, available online. I base my recommendations about client use of 2D digital printing and 3D printing in part on Negroponte's and Benny Landa's concepts.

Frank, what product(s) do you anticipate will be the next to go digital and further disrupt the printing market?

Frank Romano 

No predictions. Print books are doing well as e-books continue to grow. Some newspaper just bought 1,000 iPads to replace print for their readers. New York Times now has more digital subscriptions than print subscriptions. Sean has some great comments above. I remember when Nick did his "atoms to bits" talk at an NAPL convention. They did not get it.

Mark Decker 

I grew up with a certain fascination for maps and geography in general and had I not fallen into my particular printing career I might have been interested in being a cartographer. Even today, I have several area maps in my car door pocket, "just in case," although I haven't had to use one in years. My dad had a Chevron station in New Jersey when I was a kid, and I can't tell you how many maps we handed out, along with Plaid stamps. It's too bad, some of them were so beautifully done too.

Dov Isaacs 

With regard to printed maps, they are still available from AAA and can be ordered online at no cost assuming you are an AAA member. I still keep some current versions around simply because you really can't rely on internet availability everywhere, especially in remote, mountainous locations. The in-vehicle GPS units have maps, but are very difficult to use if you want/need the “bigger picture” as opposed to what can be displayed at one time on an automobile's GPS screen or even on a cellphone.

The bigger problem is that when many publications go from print to digital, to “protect” their assets, they don't allow download of PDF files, but rather, use proprietary readers such as ISSU from which the publisher controls whether they let you download anything, preferably in PDF format. No one can take away from me my printed copies of National Geographic, but I certainly won't subscribe to a digital publication that limits my digital access to only here and now with proprietary reader and format.

That having been said, I have a digital subscription to The Wall Street Journal that in addition to access to all their stories online, provides an ability every day to download a PDF copy of the printed paper. That's very nice except that with a 11.29"x21.77" page size, unless I am using a large 4K TV as a computer monitor or have a large-format printer at home (and even then, needing to shrink to fit to 11"x17"), such a PDF file is effectively useless, at least for reading. In the case of PDF for reading, it isn't just a matter or providing a PDF file of what would otherwise be printed, but rather, considering the layout for screen reading.

Sharon Williamson 

Speaking of annual reports, does anyone remember the Mead Annual Report Show? Each year Mead Paper would host a glitzy cocktail reception in New York City to showcase the results of a juried show of annual reports. Stunning photography and breakthrough design on gorgeously rich stocks. As a former Mead employee, we looked forward to it all year. Sigh... 

Dov Isaacs 

The fact is that the corporate annual reports of old weren't really replaced by the electronic depository of annual reports. The printed annual reports were relatively light on financial data and big on selling the corporation (or other entity) via dramatic photographs, superb graphics and narratives highlighting the positive aspects of the previous year and prospects going forward. The required “fine print” was shtupped into the back of the report in fine print. The current electronic annual reports are totally the legally required financial and operational detail required by the SEC and other regulatory bodies. Graphically, they are boring as can be.