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Monday, January 21. 2008

Another paper map company to close

In what's becoming as common a story in the local paper as "NAVTEQ/Tele Atlas driver our city's streets" comes another "paper map company to shut down." This time the story that includes the terms "typewriter" and "buggy whip" is from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The 62-year-old company expects to close its doors by the end of February, as it sells out the last of its street guides and wall maps. Too many customers are turning to GPS devices and Internet maps, instead of what Metro Graphic offers.

- MLive.com

Posted by Adena Schutzberg at 06:45 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

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It makes you wonder if the next generation of Science Fiction movies will feature teams asking if anyone knows how to read a paper map in the way that they now treat Morse Code. With the advent of PNDs with 3D large data sets, you also have to ask if topographic map reading skills will be the purview of the military and geology/ecology professional throwbacks.
#1 Chris Andrews on 2008-01-22 10:42 (Reply)
Chris, you might wish to take a note from the design profession and read a book by David Carson called 'The End of Print'.

The title is meant to be an irony of the reality that tangible paper products have, and how they tend to have more of a capacity to influence and drive good digital design and execution.

Thus, I can only suggest that I don't think we'll see 'The End of Print' occurring in the mapping markets anytime soon, my friend -- just as digital media did not kill hardcopy collateral in design.
#1.1 Daniel (Link) on 2008-01-22 10:55 (Reply)
To note as well, it's often very easy to blame the situation of a company on a 'culprit' for why that company wasn't able to produce business. That is not to say that the digital format wasn't a part of the equation to why they were unable to do business -- but the fact is, that it probably wasn't the entire or even the majority of the reason.

The primary issue is adjustment. The reality is saturation in the market and how that affects the business, and what that business did to adjust to that saturation. Market saturation can also occur due to various things, which is a broad topic to cover.
#1.1.1 Daniel (Link) on 2008-01-22 11:05 (Reply)

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