Kill a Newspaper, Save a Tree? Not Quite

Print media's decline is slamming paper producers, but that doesn't necessarily mean there will be long-term environmental benefits, experts say

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

By Esmé E. Deprez

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the circulation drop for U.S. newspapers, as well as the source of the data.

As print media collapse, they're dragging the paper and logging industries down as well. But if dying newspapers are saving a few trees now, the long-term environmental gains of media going digital are less clear.

Newspapers have been steadily losing subscribers for years—total paid U.S. daily circulation has dropped 23% from a peak of almost 63.3 million in 1984 to 48.6 million in 2008, according to the Editor and Publisher International Yearbook. That includes some high-profile closures: More than 200,000 Coloradans haven't woken up to the Rocky Mountain News on their doorsteps since it folded in February. A month later the Seattle Post-Intelligencer became the nation's largest daily newspaper, with more than 117,000 weekday readers, to become solely digital. Magazines are also disappearing; Condé Nast on Oct. 5 axed four titles, including Gourmet and Modern Bride.

That implosion is a big reason why the $200 billion wood-and-paper industry is hurting, with the newsprint sector in particular suffering its own mini-depression. The American Forest & Paper Assn. estimates that newsprint production in 2009 will fall by one-third, or almost 1.5 million tons, from the previous year, and magazine print by 1 million tons, or 25%. August was the 18th consecutive month of double-digit declines in U.S. newsprint consumption, according to research firm CreditSights. The paper-products industry now employs 37% fewer people than in 1990, while the forest-products industry as a whole has 34% fewer workers.

But there's more ailing the wood-and-paper industry than digitalization, of course. The battered housing sector has slammed new-home construction, and consumer cutbacks sharply reduce the need for packaging materials. The forest-products industry has been one of the hardest-hit throughout the economic crisis, says Bill Imbergamo, director of forest policy at the AF&PA. "Together the decline in demand for wood building and paper products threatens the viability of a key manufacturing sector—and its investments in the long-term health of our forests," Imbergamo told the U.S. House subcommittee on interior, environment, & related agencies in June. The industry says it accounts for approximately 6% of total U.S. manufacturing gross domestic product, similar to the automotive and plastics industries.

Big Bankruptcy

Some of the biggest paper companies are reeling. After a $2.4 billion debt recapitalization plan failed, AbitibiBowater, which calls itself the largest producer of newsprint in the world by capacity, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April. The company markets its annual 5 million metric tons of paper in more than 90 countries, with half of sales coming from newsprint. Faced with assets of $9.9 billion and debt of $8.78 billion, the company had been "adversely affected by industry pressures and the inability to raise new capital in the current capital market," AbitibiBowater President and CEO David J. Paterson said in a message on the company's Web site. In September the Montreal-based company announced an indefinite idling of 1.3 million tons of production. "We have a very difficult road with significant challenges ahead of us," Seth Kursman, an AbitibiBowater vice-president, said in an interview. "But we believe we can emerge [from bankruptcy] a leaner and more sustainable organization and that there's a future for the forest-and-paper industry."

Many of AbitibiBowater's rivals "are losing money or breaking even," and have had to shutter operations temporarily, if not permanently, says G. Scott Vallely, CEO of Coy Paper, a specialty-paper distributor in New Canaan, Conn. "They're surviving by issuing more bonds and taking on more debt, which isn't sustainable."

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