Sustainable Printing

I was listening to a local radio station yesterday when a news broadcast came on announcing the final printing of an Ann Arbor newspaper later this year.  I didn’t catch the official number, but it said this paper has been in circulation for over 170 years, but will now have a digital publication.  At the very end of the news piece, the announcer said, “Several jobs will be lost”.

My heart is just sad that some newspapers that have been bringing news to the masses are getting rid of their print editions.  The San Francisco Chronicle, in business for 146 years, was shut down earlier this year.  The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is now out of print.  Newspapers and magazines all over the country are ceasing their print production and moving towards digital digests (or shutting down altogether) due to rising costs and lower readership.  I feel like we’re losing some of our history by saying bye-bye to printed news.

I know there are plenty of people out there who are anti-print in all its forms, but newspapers are a great example of printing responsibly.  The newspaper industry was one of the firsts to utilize soy-based inks.  I’ve seen statistics that some 90%-95% of printed newspapers are printed with soy-based inks.  Most newsprint paper is at least some percentage recycled.  And there are so many ways to reuse newspapers from lining a kitty litter box to wrapping presents.  Newspapers are so easy to recycle, it’s a shame we may not have them around for too much longer.

Maybe we are heading toward a truly digital world.  Libraries will be turned into museums, classrooms will be filled with computers (a lot of them are already) and paper routes will be mass emails.  Still, I hope we can hang on to printed news a little while longer.

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