The future of print media is bio-paper

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. We’re going to replace physical media properties with an entirely different kind of physical media property.

I know I’ve heard rumors of a company working on a type of bio-glowy-digital paper that falls into the same category of “magic technology” as that glass monitor Bill Gates was spotted with a while ago. Organic LEDs and other such nonsense.

As I hear it, the technology is pretty good. They get something that looks basically like paper, but that can display things dynamically.

What doesn’t make sense to me is that I also heard that they were designing it to be disposable. What sense does that make?

Whoever creates this next round of paper (and successfully patents it) will have an iron grip on the next round of mass media distribution. Because every household only needs one or two dynamic papers.

If I were magic company X, developing the magic wi-fi paper, I would mail it out for free to anyone and everyone who wanted one. I would have one version that’s sized and shaped like two sheets of newspaper. I would have another one that sized and shaped like a magazine. That one would be the size and shape of a ten or fifteen page magazine.

Now imagine you’re the Chicago Tribune. Or Newsweek. Or the Wall Street Journal. Or PC Gamer. You can try to come up with some sort of bio paper of your own, or you can pay a fee to get listed on mine. I’ve already got my paper in the homes of millions of people, by giving it away for free.

It’s a hell of a lot cheaper than printing and shipping the paper every day, week, or month.