Friday, October 25, 2013

Mama don’t let you babies grow up to be lumberjacks!

As I read my top 3 subscriptions to magazines, Wired, Inc., Fortune, I suddenly realize the number of jobs that could become extinct in the future, Lumber Jacks will be one of them. We will need them for maintaining our forests however with building’s being made of composite materials, steel, glass, plastic, we do not need lumber for building.

Now the need for paper is dwindling. I don’t care what you might say about wanting the feel of the morning newspaper with your coffee, or the tactile stimulation of holding a book while reading, paper is disappearing. The printing industry is disappearing.

As kids going to school begin to get their books on e-readers and as newspapers shrink in distribution and size, (and we get our news on the TV or computer, tablet, phone) fewer and fewer lumberjacks will be needed. E-books for general reading purposes, learning or entertainment, are outselling the hard cover or paperback products. In our Tech world all of our manuals are coming in a digital form.

My wife gets a digital subscription to our Cincinnati Enquirer and I get my news via digital app’s, as well as news web sites.

Look at all the jobs beyond lumberjacks that will disappear or (in some cases) become extinct. Press operators, truckers hauling paper to printing plants, printing plants themselves as well as equipment repair and maintenance. Along side it will be the methods of distribution all the way down to the bookstore and the paper boy/girl.

Have you noticed that some large billboards are not being produced in digital form? That some signage, as well as advertisements, downtown or at the airport, are being shown on large flat panel digital displays? The Silk Screen presses will also be disappearing.

I wonder about the world after the Gutenberg press, or the Heidelberg Press for that matter.

Wired Nov 2013We will still need story tellers, journalists, sources of news collection. We just won’t need to go to the news stand (another missing element) or pick it up off the porch (sometimes wet).

Did I mention that those 3 subscriptions I talked about at the beginning were on my iPad? Oh yes, not sure why they still send me the paper edition. It is so much better on the iPad. I do all my reading on a digital device.

I might also mention that the cover story on this issue of Wired is good reading. One of my pet concerns is education and the writer here does a good job of bringing a very important point home. Our system needs changing. But that is another story.

My apologies to Willie Nelson for re-working a song title of his. Love Ya Willie!!

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