Last hurrah for print?

Paul Conley, in his excellent blog of the same name talks about the 'death of print' following the news that Thomas Register will no longer print its famous directory.

Thomas Register drops print: "

You can argue all day about whether or not print is dead. Lots of folks like to do that.
But at Thomas Register, the argument is over.
Thomas says the 2006 edition of the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers will be last print version of the industrial directory.

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I was having a related conversation yesterday with the CEO of one of Asia's leading B2B companies. This may be the time at which we see all the most interesting developments taking place in the electronic arena and a quick demise of B2B print, particularly in English. Geographical, historical and economic reasons mean that English-language print media has been, to put it mildly, troubled in Asia for many years.

Experiments like those recently announced by Crain with Plastics News China and Ad Age's China newsletter suggest that publishers are finally beginning to look really seriously at electronic alternatives in this part of the world.