Not enough space on the Internet

It might seem a contradiction but the Internet doesn't offer enough quality sites to advertise! Despite the millions of sites and billions of pages advertisers will not be able to buy space on their favourite sites. In the USA the contextual inventory on car sites was already sold out before the year started. Web pages can't take a lot more ads as they are already cluttered. McKinsey last year reported that 96% of banner ad spendings is concentrated at sites that represent only 30% of traffic. This also applies to video ads and paid search. Lack of space is a phenomenon unknown to the print industry. The Spanish Vogue of last year with over 1000 pages is a great demonstration of the print industry capabilities.

No chance of passing on a cold at the office

As long as you use the innovation of the US company Domtar chances will be reduced. They developed an office paper that is antimicrobial. This paper is protected by a silver compound against the growth of bacteria, odours, fungus, mold and mildew. The silver compound immediately kills the bacteria after contact with the paper. The company sees a new market opening in the healthcare, laboratory, hospitality, education and governemental sectors.

Magazines doing well in USA

The 2006 figures from the Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) in the USA show that total magazine rate card revenues are up 3,8% compared to 2005. Total ad pages were flat at -0,1% compared to the preceeding year. Drugs and remedies is the largest category representing 10% of total magazine ad dollars, Automotive -that is spending a lot online- still buy most ad pages. The strongest growth comes from Retail showing an increase of 20,5% in dollars and 10% in ad pages. This growth figure is surprising given the interest this category has for online media.

Al Gore's impact on paper

Last week I posted the news about e-paper from the British Plastic Logic company. This week I read about two other developments that are of interest to the paper and media industry. Toshiba has developed a printer and a new substrate that allow a same sheet to be printed up to 500 times. The printer uses thermal technology, a form of plastic sheet and no ink. Toshiba claims that at the production of the printer and using it produces less carbon dioxide. Xerox in the meantime developed an erasable paper. This sounds like a technology developed by Q in the James Bond films. Once printed the paper self-erases in 16-24 hours. "People like paper" says Eric Shrader of PARC (Xerox research center), that explains why an average office worker prints about 1,200 pages a month and trows away 21% the day that they were printed. They print to read not to store. Xerox is also working on electronic reusable paper. This Gyricon sheet is a thin layer of transparent plastic which is "loaded" electronically to display text and images.

Production of e-paper takes off

Plastic Logic (UK) announced yesterday that it will build its first plant to produce displays for e-paper. These flexible active-matrix displays that are thin, light and robust will be at the heart of new readers. The production at the plant in Dresden (Germany) is starting in 2008. People do not want the bulk and weight of paper, they have become more environment conscious and because the reading experience on laptops and PDA's is not optimal Plastic Logic is expecting a great future for e-paper. The market for this new product category is expected to count 41,6 million units in 2010.

Lean Wall Street Journal launced

Yesterday was the launch of the revised -what is called the most trusted newspaper- The Wall Street Journal print and online version. About half a million copies were handed out for free and access to the news site was also free. Most apparent change is the smaller size -almost one column- and the way the articles are displayed. Less articles on the cover page and less articles are continuing on following pages to facilitate reading. Today's front page features only four articles that are continuing on two following pages. I mentioned in other posts that newspapers are working hard to get the hybrid model right. WSJ positions the print edition as providing "what the news means" and the online version as "what's happening right now". With almost 800,000 paid subscribers to the online version it is already one of the biggest news sites.
A recent study from Pew Research in the USA shows that 34% of newspaper readers only read a print version and only 4% both print and online. WSJ now offers both in one package -for subscriptions and advertisers- bridging the two reader groups with a complementary product. I'm curious to see how this will evolve commercially and will keep you posted.