A report this past week by the Charlotte Business Journal,  Charlotte, N.C., USA, featured interviews about the paper market and ongoing company paper promotions with a Domtar (Montreal, Qué., Canada) management representative as well as the company's CEO John Williams. The article was primarily following up on a report about how the company had so far spent $10 million dollars (as of 2013) on programs promoting paper, in large part produced by a Charlotte area advertising agency.

 

Williams said that research for the company's campaigns show consumers aren’t about to give up their paper in exchange for iPad and a pdf document on a computer screen.

"There’s been quite a lot of press now that people retain information better if they use paper, if they learn cursive writing," Williams said.

As a part of the PaperBecause project, as one example noted in the article, Domtar sends a character, called "Paper," in a mascot-type suit to the 2015 Comic-Con International in San Diego, Calif., USA. Williams suggested the event was a great venue for paper because it honors the comic book. He was a hit, Martin said. Convention participants wrote on paper, and an Edward Scissorhands character scratched him up a bit.

Still, Martin said Domtar isn’t trying to convince consumers they can do without their iPhones and iPads. "We weren’t trying to pick a fight with digital," Martin added.

 

The project interviewed students on a university campus about the value they place on paper.

 

"How would you like to get your diploma in a pdf?" Martin asked. None were interested.

 

More information can be found in the full article available online.