Newspapers – Bane or Boon?

“The competition has a new benchmark to look up to” proudly proclaims a series of self aggrandizing full-page ads in the Gulf News, a popular daily published from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The ad gives average distribution figures for the six month period ending March 2007 as 111,734 - quite an impressive number for a small country!

I wish the Gulf News every success in their business. What irritates me is the junk they throw at my doorstep everyday, blatantly disregarding the environmental impact it causes.

I made a scrutiny of one week’s supply of the newspaper – it weighed a grand total of 8.125 Kg! The newspaper comes in several sections – the main paper (60-64 pages) with news, business and sports sections and a tabloid (24 pages). The bulk of the paper each day consists of several advertisement tabloids – Properties (120-130 pages), Freehold (130-140 pages), Classifieds (70-80 pages) and a broad sheet of Appointments (18-24) pages - all of which my wife promptly throws into the garbage as soon as she picks it.

The bulk of the weight is for the advertisement tabloids – it weighs 4.475 Kg or 55% of the paper. A quick calculation shows that they will need an annual supply of at least 47,337 metric tons of newsprint to maintain a daily circulation as claimed. A study by environmentalists shows that eleven standard trees (corrected for metric ton) are required to make a ton of newsprint. That means, a small newspaper like Gulf News alone is causing severe environmental damage and deforestation with the destruction of 527,000 trees every year! The advertisement tabloids alone will consume 290,000 trees per annum! A staggering figure not mentioned in their full page ads. Of course, they will retort by saying that a major portion of the circulation is recycled. Will they ever publish audited figures of recycling? I doubt.

It is true that newspapers generate the bulk of their income from advertisements – subscriptions may not even cover 50% of the cost of newsprint. But shouldn’t there be a balance? Gulf News, like any other newspaper in the world, considers itself very responsible, and occasionally trumpets out articles on environmental issues. If it is genuinely concerned, I believe it is time for them to do a genuine introspection and answer some inconvenient questions. Is it really worth the destruction? How long can we continue at this pace? Do we need the mammoth freehold and property tabloids every day? Can’t we reduce this to once a week? To compensate for the revenue loss, can’t we increase the advertisement rates seven-fold? What is a reasonable ad-edit ratio?

I am pretty sure that Gulf News will not do any of these. Dubai is a booming city – perhaps folks at Gulf News know better. Wealthy subscribers must be scrambling every morning through the freehold and property sections hunting bargain $ 1 million apartments and $ 4-6 million villas! I must be the only stupid subscriber who foolishly assumes that classifieds are sought by ordinary people ferreting out a cheap used car or looking for a low income job as a clerk, salesman or a maid.

My guess is that newspapers like Gulf News will continue to publish their massive editions until all the forests are denuded. Until all the ice in the Arctic and Greenland completely melted. Until the rising sea levels will inundate their offices and presses – unless by then they relocate to higher altitudes!

As for me, I am going to stop the subscription when the current one will expire in a few months time.