Paper or Plastic and I don’t mean bags!
Would you rather get your magazines on-line or through the mail? I’d like to hear your comments.
Here’s why I ask. Conde Nast is launching a new magazine called Portfolio. It will be their most expensive magazine launch ever coming in at a staggering $125 million before it becomes profitable. Of course they’ll have an on-line version as well.
Now here’s what to think about.
Let’s say each magazine weighs in at about 1 pound (printed on nice glossy paper to show off the car adverts). And then let’s say they produce a run of 500,000 magazines for each monthly issue. Now that equals 500,000 lbs of paper and ink or 250 tons or roughly 6 semi truckloads each month for delivery across the country. Forget about any savings in trees but think about fuel. Fuel to get raw materials to the paper mill. Fuel to get the unprinted paper to the printing plant, fuel to run the printing presses and fuel to distribute the final printed magazine. Now consider that of the copies that end up on news stands, many will not be sold and will need to be “fueled” to a recycler who will use fuel to energize the recycling process and fuel to transport the recycled pulp to a paper mill where the whole process can start over again.
Now consider the on-line version. Fuel to energize the servers and computers.
So what do you think? Paper or plastic (computers)? You decide.
Add comment April 22nd, 2007
