The Long-Term Consumption of Magazine Paper in the United States

Paper was invented in China about 2000 years ago. Since then it has spread worldwide, affecting the lives of billions of people. The value of paper has been based on its usability: paper made it possible to deliver information from one place to another, from the past to the future. Paper today has a very similar function in society to what it had a thousand years ago: it is used to distribute and store information. However, during the last ten years, ICT has developed and spread quickly in the developed countries and competition over information distribution has increased. This book provides a new viewpoint and method for projecting the long-term consumption of magazine paper. It is probable that earlier econometric models, which project paper consumption, will be proven too historically oriented and therefore will not be able to predict the future consumption. Therefore, new projection models are needed. The impact of this new media on information distribution, consumer behaviour and thereby the whole medium of print can be very significant in the long term and change the whole industry structure around the medium permanently.