Ted Roelofs of Michigan News has written a thought provoking article on the closure of Metro Graphic Arts - a traditional paper map publishing company.Ted writes: You can still find them hanging in fire stations, city halls, schools, even floral shops: comforting, detailed, familiar guides from a fading world.
William Clifford is president of Metro Graphics Arts, which is to close next month.
The paper map.
Unfortunately for Metro Graphic Arts, of Grand Rapids, they seem to be headed the way of the buggy whip and the typewriter.
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.
You can read the full story at MLive.com. Its a sign of the times, with increasingly numbers of mobile digital devices the need for paper maps is indeed declining. Yet there is something about the paper map that a GPS or teleatlas derived system cannot match and it would be a sad day to see the demise of the paper map companies..Story picked up via All Points Blog
It would be bad if all paper map companies folded.
ReplyDeleteAs much as the digitally connected world would like to believe that the entire world is connected - they should try traveling to, say, South America without a paper map of some sort. Try finding the street your hotel is on in Argentina on Google Maps, go ahead, try.
I hope that people remember to reflect on the big picture of the world around them while they are following the dotted line on their GPS device or strip map.