After the New York Times (NYT) published an editorial on bitcoin mining, stating that the industry is harmful to the environment, an organization called Stop the Presses took issue with the Times’ use of paper. Stop the Presses launched a social media campaign against the NYT’s newspaper production. The organization’s website, nytimesup.org, alleges that the company “kills an estimated 59 million trees a year.”
Activists Criticize The New York Times For The Physical Print Production Of Newspapers
On April 10, 2023, the New York Times faced criticism for publishing a one-sided “hit article” on bitcoin mining. Cryptocurrency advocates claimed that Times reporter Gabriel Dance did not use factual information. Since then, attention has shifted to the environmental impact of the American news outlet, founded in 1851, due to its newspaper production.
A group called stop the presses threw a social media campaign and website expose the current printing practices of the news business. The charge is that the New York Times destroys a significant number of trees to produce its outdated physical paper in a digital world.
“The New York Times kills approximately 59 million trees a year,” details the nytimesup.org website. “They kill these trees just to turn them into a newspaper that most people throw away, creating billions of pounds of CO2 every year. They print propaganda on the paper they create from dead trees, but we live in a digital age. This wasteful practice must stop.”
NYTimes Bitcoin Hit Piece Fails as #StopThePresses The movement explodes on social networks https://t.co/H21dbyUUbW
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 18, 2023
Many others share the same feeling How to Stop the Presses. Several people are sharing images and information on the issue while tagging the NYT’s Twitter account to make the company aware of the complaints. An individual Dear All that if the New York Times kills 59 million trees a year, they create “2.832 trillion pounds of CO2 a year.” The person points out that it’s even worse when you combine the 171 years of newspaper delivery.
“That means they have killed over 10 billion trees and created over 484 billion pounds of CO2,” the individual said. emphasized. The number of trees used to create The New York Times since 1851 does not take into account the CO2 used in the company. 27 newspaper printing locations for manufacturing purposes.
Also, it does not take into account the delivery process and all the fossil fuels used to transport the newspaper to the stores. The NYT even features a 2009 article on the subject, and the author acknowledges that physical newspapers generate a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
Citing a 2004 academic article, New York Times contributor Tom Zeller Jr. explains that the study’s conclusion notes that “receiving the news on a PDA results in significant reductions in the release of carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen and sulfur oxides.
In other New York Times article Published in 2018 by Farhad Manjoo, the author explains how he took a break from reading digital news to read the physical newspaper for two months. Interestingly, Manjoo claims it was a “surprise blessing,” though he acknowledges that the print “presents a more limited mix of ideas than what’s found online.”
The blessing, Manjoo said, despite receiving news from a day ago due to the delay in printing and delivery, was that “hundreds of experienced professionals had done the hard work” for him. The NYT has not publicly responded to any of the criticism coming from Stop the Presses and other activists.
In more recent times, the newspaper’s social media account with 55 million followers lost its check mark on Twitter. Physical print newspapers have declined over the past decade, and over the past two years, print subscribers have fell 7%. The data also show that from 2005 to 2021, approximately 2,200 American print newspapers failed, with the most readers today migration to digital media.
What do you think about the environmental impact of physical newspapers in the digital age? Do you think mainstream media outlets like The New York Times should shift their focus to digital media entirely? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below.
image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
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