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Toward the end of paper

By John Lofy

April 14, 2009

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Two pieces of jolting news hit Ann Arbor on March 23.

The first received all the attention: the Ann Arbor News would be shutting down. Many of us had watched the paper pruning itself—laying off staff, eliminating whole sections, reducing page counts—and we knew that like all newspapers, the News was struggling and would probably be announcing further cuts.

But this was startling. Come July, we learned, a new entity will take the paper's place: a website called annarbor.com (Twice a week, we're told, we'll still receive delivery of some sort of paper publication on our porches.)

The news spread, tellingly, through Facebook and Twitter posts. Opinions erupted on a handful of local blogs.

Everyone was mourning. Even people who blame the News for its own demise. All those jobs lost! All the future news that may or may not get reported. But my peers and I were mourning online.

A Press without a press

Meanwhile, the day's second surprise went largely unnoticed: the University of Michigan Press, publisher of scholarly books, novels and poetry, declared that it would restructure itself—and radically reduce the number of books it prints.

"Prints" is the key word. The U-M Press will publish at least as much material as it always has. Some publications will just be digital text. But many will be "digital monographs" loaded, like web pages, with links, audio, video and photos.

What do you think about the changes in the news and book businesses? Share your thoughts on our letters page.

The opportunities opened up by digital publishing are obvious. Links and multimedia, for instance, can make a publication richer, more interesting and more complete. Footnoted sources—crucial to academic writing—can be easily accessed. Digital documents can reach audiences' computers, Kindles and iPhones.

Then there's the intriguing rise of on-demand printing.

Digital technology makes it easier for the Press to print small batches of books when needed—say, if a professor somewhere wants to assign a book for a class.

Even more compelling: books can now be printed not just by the publishing house, but on site at a library or bookstore. Last year, the U-M Libraries obtained an Espresso Book Machine, a sort of "ATM for books," that can print and bind a paperback in minutes.

The paper infrastructure

With their archetypal names, the News and the Press are, appropriately enough, just local instances of global change. That newspapers and book publishers are struggling is common knowledge. In the weeks before the News's announcement, we heard that legendary papers such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Rocky Mountain News were shutting down or moving online. Powerhouses aren't safe either: the Chicago Tribune and LA Times are in bankruptcy. The Wall Street Journal had to be sold, and some media watchers predict that the New York Times's collapse is at hand.

As for books, the death watch has been going on for years, but realistic predictions for the book business (like this one from Boris Kachka at New York magazine) remain vague: "It'll be rough going… some publishers will transform, some will muddle through, some will die."

The newspaper and book businesses are distinct industries, and what happens to one does not directly affect the other. But what they share in common makes all the difference.

Most important of all is text: the thing we call—for now—"the written word." Whether it's an article or a novel, the pleasure of reading can be so intense that we forget the world.

We love reading, and we love the objects that allow us to read. I don't need to describe the way books become beloved objects—the heft of an old hardcover is one of the finest weights in the world. Those dreading the loss of newspapers speak nostalgically of those supposedly lovable faults: the ungainly folds, the smudgy ink.

But paper demands an infrastructure. Forests, mills, printers, ink. Delivery. Recycling centers or landfills. The costs are enormous and growing.

At Michigan Today, we learned all about that. For almost 40 years, this was a print magazine, and a low-profile one at that, never longer than 24 no-gloss pages. My predecessor, John Woodford, editor for 20 years, cut costs everywhere he could, but by the time he retired in 2006, it cost more than $100,000 to print and mail a single issue.

We printed our last issue in 2006; since then we've been online only.

Dozens of forces are straining the book and newspaper industries, and paper is at the point of greatest tension. When you're bleeding money, you have to cut costs. Paper is an inevitable target when you've got the option of going online for significantly less.

Like the News and the Press, we've seen that going digital offers genuinely exciting opportunities. Our philosophy has been that a good story is a good story, whether it's on a page or a screen. Michigan Today now publishes text articles, photos, a slideshow, video, podcasts and links to other publications. Readers can easily write us letters and contribute their own stories.

Better yet, we're spending less by an order of magnitude.

When people ask if I miss print, I say I wouldn't go back. The chance to tell stories online—lots of stories, in lots of different ways—is fun, exciting and challenging.

A reluctant good-bye

No one loves paper and ink more than writers and editors. I still miss the print Michigan Today, as do many of our readers. But the costs of the paper infrastructure are too high, and revenues in the "paper industries" are falling too precipitously. Those of us who've stared at those balance sheets know that this is the country we're going to live in from now on.

The irony is that the very people who love print so much are ultimately being forced to help eliminate it. It's like putting your beloved old dog down, or signing divorce papers. Maybe it's all for the best. Maybe there's a new life waiting. But it feels as if you're throwing your whole world into a hole.

For many, many publishers and readers, this is the moment of reckoning.

Both the newspaper and book industries have to find new ways to earn money from their good work. We're still at the start of a brutal, Darwinian period that is likely to destroy a lot of companies we love (not to mention many that just need to go). What these industries will transform into we can only see dimly, but my experience has been that building the new form is an exciting and worthwhile challenge.

So here's a bittersweet toast, mourning paper's former power, and all the jobs and joys disappearing with it. And wishing the News and the Press a bright future.

John Lofy is editor of Michigan Today.