Electronic ink, electronic paper, and WiMAX broadband wireless access. Before the end of this decade, these technologies will converge through a series of fortuitous events to help transform, and totally revitalize, the newspaper publishing industry.

Think of the scene from “Minority Report” where a D.C. subway passenger is reading a copy of USA Today on a broadsheet-sized, uber-thin screen. But it’s really USA Right-This-Second, with constantly changing text, photos, video, audio and advertising. While the film is set in 2054, the idea of a lightweight, full-page, interactive newspaper is not all that far away. Commuters, and all subscribers for that matter, will soon be able to unroll their i-newspapers and get continually updated content wherever they may go.

One of the pioneers behind the technology is E-Ink Corp. The Cambridge, Mass., firm was founded in 1997 and built its business around research conducted at the nearby MIT Media Lab. Among its goals: to create a flexible newspaper that blends the versatility of digital control with the dynamics of wireless connectivity.

The binary bindery

The concept behind E-Ink’s electronic ink is fairly simple. Take millions of black and white microcapsules (imagine tiny beach balls or paint particles), each about the thickness of a human hair. The white particles are positively charged and the black particles are negatively charged. They are all floating in a clear fluid within a capsule. When a negative charge is applied, the white particles move to the top of the surface, and at the same time, an opposite charge pulls the black particles to the bottom of the surface. By manipulating the electrical charges, combinations of particles can appear dark or light to form words and sentences. Additionally, black-and-white particles can be positioned to increase the resolution and allow grayscale dithering to occur, just like the ink in an inkjet printer.  

While prototypes to date have been monochrome, E-Ink is partnering with Japan’s Toppan Printing Co. to create 12-bit color electronic paper displays. A full-color display with black text and color images on a paper-like white background was shown at the December 2005 FPD (Flat Panel Display) trade show in Japan. Although the output format demonstrated was only about 6 inches in diameter, it is clear that another major technology hurdle has been crossed.

Other companies entering this space include Plastic Logic of Cambridge, U.K., a leading developer of printed flexible thin film transistor (TFT) displays. By combining E-Ink’s electronic inking and imaging film with Plastic Logic’s lightweight, large-format, bendable backplanes, it is possible to create a reading device that uses far less power than a laptop, provides higher quality under all lighting conditions and from all angles, and allows data to be continually refreshed and displayed on a surface that looks and feels like a daily newspaper (see Figure 1).



Fig. 1: Even at this early stage of development, it’s not hard to imagine which medium will be the preferred choice for morning commutes and relaxed Sunday mornings alike.

Whither WiMAX?

To achieve the “Minority Report”-like vision of constantly updated headlines and interactive content, the mobile i-newspaper reader certainly cannot be tethered to a DSL cable or broadband modem connection. That’s where WiMAX comes in. WiMAX is an acronym for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave, and it’s a wireless technology that provides high-speed Internet access over large distances. Instead of having WiFi hot spots at specific coffee shops, bakeries and airport locations, with WiMAX everyone in a community can access the Internet wirelessly wherever he or she may be.

The Cayman Islands recently completed a WiMAX project that now provides 100 percent wireless coverage to all businesses and aims to have 100 percent residential coverage this year. In Russia, GlobalTel Wireless is partnering with Moscow-based Internafta to deploy wireless networks throughout 30 Russian cities over the next two years. In addition, communities throughout the United States are beginning to roll out WiMAX hot spots covering distances from eight to 30 square miles.

Once WiMAX becomes more pervasive, the idea of a portable, updatable online news and information device seems like a logical next step. And this is where electronic newsprint can shine: Why would people want to lug around a heavy laptop or try to squint at box scores on their cell phones if instead they could get the news and information they need from their e-device?

Electronic newsprint will succeed because it mimics the paradigm - in terms of look, feel and format - of a newspaper. Better still, it can be reused thousands of times and requires less than 1/100th the power of a laptop computer. It’s also six times brighter than any LCD display. Plus, the ink doesn’t get on your fingers, no trees are lost in its production, no recycling is required, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

From a publisher’s perspective, the best news of all is that the production of an i-newspaper will closely match the workflows, talents, and business operations of today’s media companies. The demand for current, high-quality content will be as strong as ever. Readers will still want local news, combined with national, international and feature stories. Location-based classified and display advertising will thrive, and existing advertiser relationships will be strengthened as a result of new multimedia package offerings that can be provided.

Accustomed to deadlines

Of course, journalists and editors will need to get accustomed to deadlines that are more similar to those of a Web publishing environment. At the same time, space constraints will become less of an issue, which again will follow the model of the newspaper’s Web site. From a design perspective, the i-newspaper’s layout will be similar to that of the current printed edition. Section fronts can be planned like conventional tab or broadsheet pages, with links to allow i-newspaper readers to click and drill deeper into stories of interest, or (a little further in the future) to jump to sidebar video or audio clips.

It’s also possible to envision advertiser coupons and promotions that can be sent from the i-newspaper to someone’s cell phone, and vice versa. And just as editorial content can be continually updated, the same will apply to advertising content. Real estate agents will be able to provide up-to-the-minute open house information and latest selling prices. Car dealers will be able to send current inventory lists with images and descriptions. In fact, combine the i-newspaper and WiMAX concepts with some personalization, global-positioning and geo-location technologies, and you can see how a retail advertiser will be able to provide targeted sales offers or coupons to individual readers who happen to be nearby the retailer’s business.

The bottom line

Profit and loss obviously will also play an enormous role in the adoption of this technology. To come back to today’s reality for a moment, newspaper publishers were at the end of 2005 faced with newsprint prices of more than $600 per ton, up more than $50 per ton from 2004 figures.

A metro newspaper uses approximately 200,000 tons of newsprint each year. At current newsprint prices, a typical publisher spends about $150 per reader on the manufacture of a daily newspaper. It might therefore prove cost-effective for the newspaper to add value by offering a reading device as part of a print/electronic subscription package.

With rising costs, shrinking circulation, and dwindling ad volumes, the newspaper industry is sure to embrace the complementary benefits that electronic ink and wireless wide-range access will provide. Media companies like Hearst Corp., McClatchy Co. and Gannett Co. Inc. have already taken steps in this direction through strategic investments in E-Ink. Technology powerhouses such as Xerox (through its acquisition of Gyricon), Philips and Sony are also developing electronic paper alternatives in increasingly larger and more legible formats.

Peter G. Marsh is senior vice president and chief integration officer at Atex. He can be reached via e-mail at pmarsh@atex.com or by telephone at 781.276.1616.