NEWS > BUSINESS > NEWSPAPERS PIONEERING USE OF SELF-DESTRUCTING PAPER

NEWSPAPERS PIONEERING USE OF SELF-DESTRUCTING PAPER

May 19 2009

New York, NY – Newspapers have never had it quite as rough as they do today. The dwindling economy, competition from alternative mediums, and a general indifference to traditional method of new delivery have all contributed to the blood-letting that has seen many venerable publications go extinct. With no signs of things getting better
and the threat of dissolution an ever more looming threat for even the biggest papers, news organizations across the world are looking for solutions and a recent advance in pulp paper technology may have provided that very solution.

Similar to the technique used in the television movie series ‘Mission: Impossible’ the new paper technology, announced by the Pulp Paper consortium, the new process will allow newsprint to self destruct within minutes of reaching the user. Already in the testing phase for the New York Times and the Washington Post, the industry is hoping that the decreased life of the newspapers will encourage increased purchases and elimination of newspaper sharing.

“What we found in talking with our partners in the newspaper industry is that one of
the biggest problems with sales is the tendency of people to pass the newspaper to friends and family or leave it laying around for other people to find. That has been a significant concern for years now but pulp and ink technology have only now reached a level where a solution presented itself,” said John Wharton, spokesperson for the consortium. “While we don’t want to go into specifics of the process at the moment, we do feel that this is as important a revolution in the publication industry as the printing press itself and that it couldn’t come at a better time. Now people will not be able to simply read someone else’s newspaper and will have to buy one for themselves.”

It is believed that the new technology combines the paper itself, a special ink, and the heat generated from handling the papers will turn the printed material back into a pulpy mass, which can then be easily processed in a recycling plant. The length of time before disintegration will depend on a number of factors including weather and sweatiness, but is expected to only be a few minutes.

“It’s an interesting prospect. Similar to the battle that has been going on with sharing
on the web, sharing has long been a huge obstacle to revenue generation for papers. For every paper that is shared these papers lose money. Add to that the gain in advertising revenue they will gain by the increase in sales and this could be the change the industry has been looking for,” said Scrape TV Business analyst Ken Green. “Of course it means that people are going to have to read much more quickly than they are used to and may even skip over sections and articles that have less importance to them, but people will adapt. One thing the newspaper industry has always been about is changing for the times.”

The consortium is also looking to develop slower destructing formulas for use in magazines and books, industries that have also suffered in the web age.

“Of course the web will continue to be a problem for many of the papers. It’s a whole
lot harder to make a website self-destruct than it is a piece of paper. I suppose they could use some kind of code that would delete an article as soon as someone right clicks on it on tries to access the URL, but that is a challenge for the future,” continued Green. “What will be really interesting is seeing how the music and movie industry adapt this process for their own purposes. Self destructing DVD’s and mp3’s might work but you still have to tie them to a specific user. Some technology that will allow music to be tied to a specific users ear or movies to the eye. That technology hasn’t been invented yet of course but as it’s becoming more and more necessary to cut down on sharing, well necessity is the mother of invention.”

Officials for major newspapers did not return our request for comment. It’s not yet clear what kind of mess decomposing newspapers will make on kitchen tables across the country. 

William Ashford, Business Correspondent

NEWS > BUSINESS > NEWSPAPERS PIONEERING USE OF SELF-DESTRUCTING PAPER