Google “closed printing companies” and you’ll see numerous companies that are closing after over 50 years of printing. I would like to think there is something that we can do to save the diminishing companies, but probably not. There is something irreplaceable about a book and reading on a cold rainy day, which isn’t the same as reading off of an e-Reader. National newspapers are letting go of workers and merging together in a desperate attempt to try to save money and survive. Magazines, which have been the hardest hit industry, have recorded a decrease in sales of over 9% in 2009, and are closing at rate of one magazine per day. This could actually be the death of printing.
Almost everything is online now, which is a reason why printing companies are shutting their doors. The latest news articles are posted conveniently online and books can be purchased online as well, so there really is no reason to have to buy a book. Sites like AOL and Yahoo, update their news columns constantly, so getting news is easier and faster than ever before. Although the declining economy and the increased prices hasn’t helped with the money woes, but the latest e-Readers, such as the Kindle from Amazon and the iPad from Apple, are to blame as well. Technology is always advancing and trying to make life easier, or more entertaining, and the e-Readers are doing just that. Reading has become a part of our daily lives, from reading for a class to reading the newspaper for stock updates, and the e-Readers are changing the way we read. They are more convenient as well, books are bulky and tend to be annoying to carry, but an e-Reader is a fixed weight and is literally a way to access thousands of books.
Printing has been in business for hundreds of years and has survived the worst, such as the Great Depression, but it has been recently that printing could possible die.