E-paper wins says head of biggest Europe publisher

[Alexander Turcic]

In an article on the future of journalism, Mathias Döpfner, head of Europe's biggest publishing house Axel Springer AG, elaborates how traditional publishing will continue to co-exist despite the increasing emergence of online media, and - this is what we love to hear - how print paper as an information carrier will be replaced by electronic paper:

Newspapers must focus on their own strengths, and that means being a horizon medium, creating and satisfying wishes and interests which readers did not even know they had. As in the past, this remains the newspaper's future, regardless of whether it is delivered on paper or electronic paper. One thing I am sure of is that the future of newspapers is digital. They will cease to be printed on paper as soon as electronic paper exists that fulfils the following criteria: it has to be thin, foldable and rollable, capable of reproducing high-resolution colour images, ensuring foolproof touch-screen operation, with no need for heavy batteries or chargers, and it must be cheap. Then we will roll out our newspaper out of a mobile phone or ballpoint pen. Then we will call up our subscription at the click of a button. Work on developing e-papers of this kind is well underway. Eventually - in five, ten or twenty-five years - we will distribute this electronic paper to our subscribed customers. Costs for paper, printing and distribution will sink dramatically - but our business model will not have changed at all. Information and entertainment for a range of target groups. In other words: exclusive news, independent opinions and captivating language. In a word: journalism.

You find the English translation of the full article over at signandsight.

[CommanderROR]

Well what do you say to that!

If Axel Springer gets behind this it'll get interesting...I don#t like htem, but they have influence and money...lots of it...

What bothers me a bit is his high expactations (color, foldable, rollable, no batteries, touchscreen, cheap,...) and his timeframe.

If he puts his lowest estimate at 5 years, he's being very conservative.

Reproducing magazines that have glossy photographs and stuff could take 2 years, but I wouldn't say more. Newspapers should be even faster. Touchscreen is already possible, you'd have to try it on a bendable display..I'm not too sure about that...and low power consumption, printable battereis and stuff are already there. You'd need somebody to put it all together.,

To get there you need a market, and this market can only be created if content is created. So I hope Axel Springer is not planning on waiting for everything to get there before they start getting interested...because then it could indeed take 25 years.
Luckily iRex seems to be getting quite a few newspaper companies together, so things could still work out ok.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

It's probably because he's hoping someone else will step up and do the legwork that he's guessing conservatively. Unless a very progressive organization-

1. Helps get e-paper ready for primetime,
2. Commits to mass manufacturing,
3. Converts their own organization to take advantage of e-paper, and
4. Markets (read: Practically give the things away) to early-adopter consumers,

-then we can expect the "e-paper revolution" to take 10 years or more to get started.