Newspapers to disappear by 2040?
Newspapers will disappear and be replaced by digital versions by 2040. The chief of World Intellectual Property Organisation was reported as telling a Swiss newspaper that “in a few years, there will no longer be printed newspapers, as we know it today”.
Quoting studies in this respect, he said that in the United States printed newspapers would disappear much earlier by the year 2017.
According to these studies, more digital copies are sold there than paper copies of newspapers.
The digital technology has brought a revolution in our lives.
It appears as if it will completely make us free very soon from the use of paper in almost every form.
Publication of books and magazines, even in the advanced world, has gone down over the years with fewer libraries and bookstalls around.
Circulation of newspapers has also recorded a sharp decline as most papers are now available on the Internet.
In Pakistan, too, digital and information technology has, quite visibly, reduced the use of paper in most spheres of our lives.
Computerisation of accounts has replaced the age-old and cumbersome ledgers.
Emailing has replaced writing on paper. Debit and credit cards have considerably replaced the use of paper currency and cheque books, to cite a few examples.
Television news channels and e-papers on the Internet have largely affected newspaper readership.
There can be no denying that reading material is now abundantly available on non-paper versions.
Despite these advance trends, the real charm of reading all over the world will remain attached to reading on paper.
The usual faces of books, magazines and newspapers, I believe, will continue to attract and fascinate serious readers everywhere and in all times to come.
A. S.
Islamabad
Source: Dawn
Date:10/13/2011
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