Should Newspapers and book publishers convert to electronic publishing over paper publishing as their primary product?

Answer 1

NO! Only a fraction of the worlds people have access to computers or the energy needed to operate them. How would a deaf-mute access literary works?

NO! Some people prefer books.

There are several advantages over not implementing such things Some are already indicated above by other contributers

Others would include:

-Harder to pirate printed material (Although arguable as the technology increases when copying protection from websites can be implemented)

-Low maintenance cost: Since computer websites are dependant on one or a few servers, if this breaks down (or on maintenance), users may lose access to the information.

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I am a newspaper publisher, so I'll give you my opinion on this: Absolutely not.

From a strictly economic standpoint it would make sense for us to get rid of our paper products: an electronic product would be FAR cheaper than a paper one. The equipment we use to produce the newspaper--it's more than just the printing press--is worth about $10 million, and our paper isn't very big. The New York Times probably has $25 million in its New York plant, and they contract with other plants to produce the national edition.

Now here's the flipside: Electronic newspapers are very hard to archive. Paper newspapers are a different matter: last year someone burned down the offices of one of our newspapers. The arsonist was caught, and one of the things that entered into his sentencing was that he destroyed over a century of local history. We know exactly how to archive a newspaper so you can read it two hundred years from now. I have 10-year-old computer files I couldn't open no matter what I did.

Electronic newspapers need electronic devices to read them. Not everyone has one of those devices. All you need to read paper newspapers are your eyes.

A paper newspaper is also useful for a vast number of things--wrapping dishes when moving, as dropcloths, to line bird cages, for washing windows...

The newspaper industry has the Newspapers in Education program, where we take donations from the community so we can provide a newspaper every week to schoolkids. It could be done with an electronic newspaper, IF there were enough computers in the school to allow every kid to get on one. Paper newspapers don't give us that problem: we put 30 papers in a bundle and haul it to the school.