I didn’t explain the specifics before, but to talk briefly about the color issue: The color ‘red’ you see on a computer screen will print out differently, because in tangible meat space, the color red on paper is bouncing the light (reflecting is the word I used). Screens illuminate the color. There’s a little icon in photoshop (!) that attempts to alert you and correct the color choice because of the science of light. If you’ve ever been in a submarine or underwater, the color of a red shirt/wetsuit/etc will change the deeper you go because the natural light is becoming filtered and causing some of the whiteness to vanish (and makes the red of your clothing turn blue).

All that science just shows the difference between a surface that needs power to be seen vs. something that just takes the light around it. At what point do you need to turn on the light in the evening to read words on a sheet of paper?

One final thought: I have two phones, and one is way better than the other when I’m looking at their screens outside in the sun. Too much reflective light, not enough illuminated light.

But, seriously, I would have hoped that the newspaper industry learned from its early web mistakes that a new transmission medium needs new thinking to succeed. Why, oh, why should we try to stick the five articles with jumps inside and a couple of photos format on new devices that are nothing like holding a bunch of pieces of paper in your hand?

And instead of reinventing the wheel for each and every new device, shouldn’t the industry try to come up with some formatting and display standards that would work with any new device?

However, “print” and “newspaper” are not synonymous terms. The conglomerate form of newspaper that has rolled-up local newspapers in the U.S. is what is killing it, IMHO. Also, the 24/7 nature of breaking news doesn’t play to print newspapers’ strength

On another front, while I can understand why the e-Paper people may argue their technology is more green than paper, the efficiency of “reflective” media vs. “illuminated” media is a rather “latter-day” debate point addition. Before we add “reflective” media to hybrid cars for lessening our carbon footprints, can someone explain to me what will be powering the lightbulbs necessary for us to read such reflective media? Nuclear, perhaps? Wind? So won’t those same things be powering our illuminated media?

Print is just one of four mighty mediums.