The Forest Through the Trees
Yardley, however, says there isn't necessarily a correlation between the two, and should the economy improve it doesn't mean a price hike will follow. "I think pricing will be relatively flat, but if you look at the returns the paper industry has received, [it] needs a price increase."
New Lines
What publishers can count on is the development of digital papers in the coming year. Domtar is currently working aggressively on the concept in its other divisions and Eastern Paper, based in Amherst, MA, is beta testing its Inspire product specifically designed for digital offset presses that print 70 pages per minute to 100 pages per minute. As installations of digital short-run presses increase, manufacturers turn toward technologies that will produce paper capable of running on machines and deliver a high quality performance.