Forest industry study: tablets may cut mag paper use by as much as 50% within 15 years

Because of the spreading use of tablets, the North American demand for paper for magazines will drop by as much as 20% by 2015 and perhaps as much as 50% over the next 15 years, according to a forest product industry study. A story in Folio: quotes global forest products information provider RISI which notes that there are already over 10 million tablets in use today, with many more to come.

As print circ falters in the magazine industry (about 45 percent of consumer magazine report circ losses in ABC’s half year report), publishers have been putting an enormous amount of time and resources into producing digital editions for magazines. More publishers are striking deals for subscription sales with Apple (last week, Reader’s Digest joined a growing group of publishers including Conde Nast, Time Inc., Hearst, etc. who now offer digital subscription and single copy for purchase through the App Store.) Time Inc. also recently announced that its entire magazine portfolio (21 titles in total) will be available for the iPad by January 2012, while it and other publishers like National Geographic are developing apps for Android-based tablets as well.