I just read a blog post from a respected voice in the print industry and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
First of all, printers have it tough enough as more content is being published online so we don’t need so many brochures, magazine readership is going down, yellow pages are moving online and direct mail is dramatically being replaced by email.
To make things worse people are putting on their emails a warning to think about the environmental impact of printing out an email message before you do it. The big message being that printing is bad for the environment.
So a blog post from Print CEO tried to make the case that a Kindle has a carbon footprint too (who knew there is something called e-waste). And, that door-to-door salespeople give the planet much more to deal with then a direct mail piece. He went all the way down to mentioning the rubber dust from the tires being left on the pavement as canvassers drive around the burbs.
Business is tough enough trying to build an ROI on direct mail versus email without having to make the point that the printing industry plants more trees every year than they use.
It’s a good read but whatever you do don’t print it and send it to someone.