Print Media vs. Digital Media

Dylan Immel

Mr. Reuter

B4 Economics

14 May 2015

Printed Media vs Digital Media

Now that technology is so advanced and our computers, phones, and other electronic devices are constantly giving us internet access, digital media is on the rise. Most, if not all of our favorite newspapers, magazines, books, and so many other publications are available online as well as in physical printed form. This has given way to debates over which type of media is better, and whether printed media should continue to be available at all. There are economic benefits that come with publishing content digitally, but printed media has been around for hundreds of years and is still preferred by most people. Can both formats coexist?

The above infographic gives some insight to the pros and cons of printed media and digital media. Obviously, printed media gives the convenience of a physical copy that you can hold in your hands and is always available. Digital media takes up little to no space and can be easily changed. Aside from these simple differences are the economic aspects of the formats. With printed media, each copy of the product needs to be individually printed, and once a copy has been published, it cannot be changed without manual maintenance. This drives up production costs to the publisher and, in the end, costs to the consumer. In addition, printed media uses up much more scarce resources in production (wood to make paper, ink to print with, etc.) and in distribution (storage, delivery, etc.). The opportunity cost of using printed media is increased production costs.

With digital media, there is very little cost to produce the final product, and it can be done quickly and easily whilst using few resources. The most expensive cost of digital media is without a doubt the technology used to make it, but this is for the most part a one-time cost that may need a few updates from time to time, unlike the constant need for paper and ink that comes with printed media. Distribution of printed media is far simpler as well, it takes just a few steps on a computer and the content is made available to everyone. However, not everyone can afford or is familiar with the technology that is used to view digital media, and it can be frustrating when the tech has issues with internet connectivity or other problems. Thus, the opportunity cost of digital media is familiarity and availability.

According to this 2012 survey of Americans who read newspapers through various formats, 60% of people still read the news exclusively through printed, physical papers. Clearly, most of us want printed media to stay. What’s not to like about having a real book or magazine and being able to hold it, page through it, and admire the artwork? Using a tablet or eBook just feels fake. Although printed media may have an overall bigger cost to both producers and consumers, it’s something that has been here for too long to just give up all at once.

Works Cited

Harkaway, Nick. "Paper vs Digital Reading Is an Exhausted Debate." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 31 Mar. 2014. Web. 12 May 2015.

Ingram, Matthew. "It’s Not Just about Print vs. Digital Media — It’s about Culture." Gigaom. Gigaom, Inc, 24 Nov. 2014. Web. 12 May 2015.

Movie Theatre's Economic Role

Bastian Hill

Mr. Reuter

Economics B4

4, May 2015

Movie Theater’s Economic Role

Every state in America has a movie theater bustling with the latest films and the biggest fans. But other than a fun night out with friends, what do movie theaters do for us as an economy? It’s been argued for years that theaters have overpriced food or fees for tickets, but how they’ve been earning such a huge revenue is the advertisements before each screening. They’re hard to miss; you go to the theater to spend your income on a movie with no commercials but find yourself watching twenty minutes worth of them before the previews can even start. Just check out how many tickets have been sold in the past twenty years!

Movie tickets, which topped out at an average of $8.17 last year according to variety.com, are bringing in an incredible amount just on their own. But the big question is: Where does it all go?

For the most part, the money returns back to the studio that rented it to the theater and the producer of the film in question. A usual 70% of sales makes its way back to where it started, leaving the other 30% for the theater. Movie theaters seem to sustain their own personal economy rather than benefit the town it’s in in any other way than entertainment. Studies show that in 1948 - 67 years ago - tickets for the cinema cost only $0.36. If that price is adjusted for inflation it should be $3.56 in the present. But thanks to uneven distribution of wealth made on the profits of showing new films, movie theaters bump up prices between eight and ten dollars. Even then, most of the money nowadays is made from the advertisements before showings and, you guessed it, the concession stand.

.

This generalized chart of theater concessions shows that not a single type of good sold, even on the low end profit margin side of things, brings in under 50% of profit. That’s way more than the theater generates from the ticket sales! And a large popcorn that costs $0.90 to make is being sold for $5.00 for this very reason. What we could be paying is $0.40 for a soft drink and $0.90 for a large popcorn, but alas, someone needs to benefit from this.

Studios and producers of the latest films are pushing to have theaters play dozens of advertisements before the movie; some even refuse to release it to them without playing a full reel of commercials first. But this creates a conflict of interest between the cinema and its customers. Of course no one goes to the theater to watch commercials they can see at home, so when they’re played for twenty minutes straight we as a community get a little irritated. As the number of advertisements played before a movie continues to increase, the rates at which tickets are being sold is actually decreasing. If balance can’t soon be achieved between the three contributors - the studios, the theaters, and the consumers, - it’s predicted that the ever popular Netflix is going to invalidate the appeal of going out to the movies altogether.

Works Cited

Kennon, Joshua. "The Economics of the Movie Theater Industry Will Be Interesting Over the Next 25 Years." Joshua Kennon. Joshua Kennon, 10 Aug. 2014. Web. 12 May 2015.  

Fisher, Ken. "A Peek into Movie Theater Economics." ARS Technica. Ken Fisher, 5 Jan. 2006. Web. 12 May 2015.  

Lang, Brent. "Average Movie Ticket Prices Increase to $8.17 for 2014." Variety. Brent Lang, 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 12 May 2015.  

Economic Effect of Trash on Pewaukee, WI

Ally Pfister

Mr. Reuter

Econ.

May 11, 2015

Economic Effect of Trash on Pewaukee WI.

You live in Pewaukee; Correct? Did a trash can and recycle bin show up at your door sometime in the past few weeks? Do you know why? The city of Pewaukee is changing their trash collection procedure and it has an economic effect on everyone in the town, and the town itself. A new garbage collection service is being adapted by Pewaukee and it will affect every resident in the area economically.

Since 1995 Pewaukee has charged the garbage and recycling collections costs as a special charge on the end of year tax bill.  The City Attorney has said that state statutes require the city to give you a chance to pay the bill first.  This year we sent out the first annual bill for these services.

Johnsdisposal.com says; “Johns Disposal has been selected by the Pewaukee City Council as the new garbage & recycle services provider beginning in 2015.  Residents will receive two carts, one for garbage and a second for recycling.  Residents will be required to bring the new carts to the curb on garbage & recycle day”.  Garbage will be collected every week, recycling will be collected every other week. Each Household will be provided with 1‐32 gallon plastic can for recycling. The homeowner will use their own garbage can or purchase one from Johns Disposal. Both garbage and recycling will be collected weekly in both the village and city of Pewaukee (which are different, if you weren't aware).  

By switching the town of Pewaukee over to this new trash system, it is said to lower the cost of garbage and recycling will go from  $195 per household unit to $155 per household unit. Trash is now required to be taken out to the curb once per week, unless subscribed to the “up the drive” service, with an up charge for that specific household. These residences will then be charged, an annual cost of $165.00. The City is changing the service from up‐the‐drive pickup to curbside pickup. By moving the service to curbside collections, the cost is less due to the efficiencies of using automated collection equipment. Currently all of the City residents pay for up‐the‐drive service, but only about ½ use the up‐the‐ drive service. We believe it more fair, city‐wide, if those who use or need the up‐the‐drive service pay for that level of service, and those who don’t use the service don’t subsidize those that do. By using this new service, more people will recycle and care about the way they dispose of their trash.  Its state law to recycle; and There is a cost savings for each ton diverted to recycling instead of the landfill, which in turn, affects the economy of Pewaukee WI.

Regardless if taking out the trash is a chore around your house or not, you now know more about why your are taking the trash all the way to the curb each week, and what economic effect that trash has on your household, and your town.

Work Cited

"Pewaukee Trash Cans - Google Search." Pewaukee Trash Cans - Google Search.

Web. 11 May 2015.  

"Pewaukee, City." Johns Disposal. 20 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 May 2015.

"Trash Cans Can Not Be Stored Outside - Steeplechase Pewaukee." Trash Cans Can

Not Be Stored Outside - Steeplechase Pewaukee. Web. 11 May 2015.

"Welcome to an Engaged Community." Pewaukee, WI. Web. 11 May 2015.

Mayweather Vs. Pacquiao Packing an Economic Punch

Thomas Labros

A1 Economics

May 5th, 2015

Mrs. Straub

Mayweather Vs. Pacquiao Packing an Economic Punch

This weekend the so called “fight of the century” took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. The city had a dramatic increase in hotel rooms sold and ended up with every hotel and motel in and around the area with 95-100% capacity. This is Ridiculous! This Fight is bringing in an enormous amount of Revenue to the City. Because both of These boxers were competing for the world title, and the fight was long overdue it drew so much attention to the city. That night alone not including boxing tickets, the city was estimated to make an increase of about 150 million dollars. This is an insane boost for the Economy.

This event is a tremendous help for Las Vegas looking at it as an opportunity for Economic Growth. There are so many things that Las Vegas can do with the money that they made while hosting this fight, they can create jobs, help the community and etc.I think that we will be seeing some very positive effects in sin city after the fight has been all said and done.

If you look at the prices of boxing tickets, the tickets after sale price were starting at $6k and ending somewhere around $350k. This is an insane amount of money for one seat, and of course all of this money is being spent and is letting the economy thrive and raising the GDP Per Capita for Las Vegas. Then Pay-Per View was streaming the fight live for 89.95. and the Opportunity Cost for that was they lost the opportunity to be doing something else because they needed so many cameras and workers there to cover all of the action.

The Brewers

Madison Pribyl

Mr. Reuter

Economics - B4

May 2nd, 2014

Once again, the Milwaukee Brewers are starting to play their ever-lasting games of the season. Even though they haven’t had a great run the past few years, everyone seems to still support them in high hopes of being able to win. The counties in Wisconsin that benefit from the revenue of what the Brewers bring in would be: Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, Waukesha and Racine counties. These are the five counties which benefit most economically from the Milwaukee Brewers and the counties which paid a sales tax of .1% ($.10 on $100) to finance the construction in 2001 of Miller Park.

Miller Park's fan-shaped retractable roof ensures each game will go on, and it’s helping the Brewers draw an average of 1 million more baseball fans a year than the team attracted in its final years at County Stadium - about 2.56 million a season. It’s efficient that the stadium is able to produce so many products in order to celebrate the team. It takes time, effort, labor and a lot of guts lately to produce as many products for the Brewers team because you are willing to either gain or lose from cost/benefit analysis, even with the high demand. The law of increasing costs on the t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats and food is what is able to help the economy in the city. As shown in Table 4 with the various demographics, average annual attendance at Miller Park is 2,023,306 (2001 – 2004). 1,153,284 are from out of the five-county area; 249,029 overnight visitors will spend an average of two nights in motels or hotels in the area; 94,934 overnight visitors will spend an average of 2 nights with friends and family in the area; and 809,322 will spend just the in the area.

Even if the Brewers aren’t doing the best, they are still able to bring in an average of a million more fans a year. The Brewers won an average of 47.7% of their games in the team's final 12 seasons at County Stadium. The winning percentage in the first 12 seasons at Miller Park is nearly identical: an average of 47.6%, according to figures provided by the stadium district. During the Brewers record attendance year of 2011, 1.39 million of the 3.07 million game attendees were from outside the five-county area. Baseball fans from outside southeast Wisconsin who attend Milwaukee Brewers games at Miller Park have an estimated economic impact of $355.7 million annually, according to a study released Tuesday. The Brewers' annual series with the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and Minnesota Twins consistently brings many of their respective fans to our region; occupying local hotels, and supporting local restaurants, bars and other entertainment venues that bring in enough inelastic and/or elastic goods to the cause. Even if you are simply just driving past the stadium on your way to work or home, and there’s a game occurring, the parking lot is still packed full of cheering fans for their Wisconsin baseball team.

Throughout each year, the entire experience of getting a new stadium and being able to have our very own baseball team named the Milwaukee Brewers, is always exciting. Nowadays, it is an achievement when our team is able to support the various counties around it such as: Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, Waukesha and Racine counties. Personally, I will be heading off to a game soon to support our team, even if they may lose yet again. This just proves to anyone that even if the team isn’t the best around, anyone, at any point in time, will sustain a time to travel to the stadium.

Works Cited

MBBC. "The Economic Impact of the Milwaukee Brewers." UW Milwaukee, Jan. 2005. Web.

Behm, Don. "Distant Brewers' Fans Have $263 Million Annual Impact."Distant Brewers Fans Have $263 Million Annual Economic Impact, Study Says. Journal Sentinal, 12 Mar. 2013. Web. 02 May 2015.

Kirchen, Rich. "Miller Park Adds $300M to Local Economy." Milwaukee Business Journal. Milwaukee Business Journal, 12 Mar. 2013. Web. 2 May 2015.

Chess

Chess, by Christian Dischler

Although there is no clear point of origin for the game of chess, it is believed to come from either China, India, or Persia. The game has evolved very much since it was first created. Names of pieces, how pieces can move, name of the game, and how pieces looked all changed as years went on, but the game was always played on a eight by eight checkerboard. Chess has taken a dip recently in popularity due to games that do not require any patience like Call of Duty. We live in an age where we need everything now and we want the easiest option, which is what the opposite of what chess teaches. Chess teaches people the important virtue of patience, and forces it’s players to think about things down the road rather than video games that only require little thinking about the present.

These very important skills can be applied in the business world too. Economist Kenneth Rogoff says “I think about chess all the time. In boring meetings. Or at night. Sometimes I think about chess to calm myself down, almost like meditation.” Kenneth gives credit to chess for his success, for he was a high school drop out and kept himself busy by playing chess. It also helped him by giving him the ability to anticipate things that were going to happen. Another grandmaster in Chess and a Certified Financial Planner, Douglas Goldstein, explains a scenario of what happened in a chess game with an interviewer, “I moved the protecting piece out of the way and she snagged my other piece. This is exactly what can happen with the protection surrounding [a client’s] money.” He then goes on to explain the analogy of chess to economics with,“Someone has an IRA and says, ‘I’m gonna take some money out and buy some cottage in Oregon by the Rogue River’. You’ve got to keep those key protections in place. The moment you move them [in this case, the tax-protective shell of the IRA] you’re setting yourself up for potential devastation.” Like Kenneth Rogoff,  Goldstein has also been prepared to anticipate things and apply it to the business world thanks to his experiences in playing chess.

Although the demand for chess is not as high as it used to be, parents should try to teach their children chess and get them involved with the game at a lower age in order to help them out down the road. Chess is fairly cheap hobby that only requires basic equipment to play unlike sports which have high initial costs and new equipment each season as the wear down very quickly. It can also increase hand eye coordination as players experience increase. Players of chess can choose to play with a timer and play a type of chess called blitz where the player has a restricted amount of time to move and a restricted total time. Blitz chess not only improves hand eye coordination but will increase the players ability to think on their feet. If chess is cheap and can be played at anytime of the day why not get yourself and others involved.

Works Cited

Spence, Michael. "How Chess Can Make You Rich." Think Advisor. Morgan James Publishing, 21 Oct. 2014. Web. 5 May 2015.

Emmett, Ryan. "Kenneth Rogoff On Chess And Debt." Chess.com. Chess.com, 6 Feb. 2012. Web. 5 May 2015.  

http://www.dnaindia.com/sport/report-mumbai-lad-dev-shah-wins-under-7-world-schools-chess-championships-in-brazil-2041541

LeBron James Bringing More Than Basketball?

Hannah Breese

Mrs Straub

Economics B1

5 May 2015

LeBron James Bringing More Than Basketball?

LeBron James: the four time MVP, out of Akron, Ohio an impact on the economy? After spending a solid four seasons with the Miami Heat winning back-to-back championships, James decides to “pack his bags” and return home to the Cleveland Cavaliers. This was a disputed decision, some fans argued that it was good because he would be a great asset to the Cleveland team and city but many also said he was leaving a lot of opportunity behind in Miami coming off of the two big championships. Even though it seemed like a rather stupid decision to some, on the positive side the return of LeBron James has boosted the Cleveland economy bringing in an approximated $500 million extra a year(Unemployment). Without the return of LeBron James, Cleveland would still be declining financially, and lacking any economic growth.

It is stated that LeBron James is bringing around $500 million dollars to Cleveland(This). Through analysis of ticket prices, game attendance, revenue for the city, playoff games, and merchandise sales it all adds up. After one of the worst seasons in the NBA in 2013-2014 season, the Cavaliers at the start of the 2014-2015 season were leaders in both merchandise sales, and ticket prices. For example, in 2013 the Cavaliers sold regular season game tickets for around $55.95 which earned the team a total of $47 million in ticket sales. Once LeBron announced his return, season tickets sold out immediately and the rest of the tickets had to be raffled off-with hopes of giving everyone an equal chance(Appelbaum). Remembering that back in January of 2010, Cleveland was battling through a recession with an unemployment rate of around 10%. Now, just a few years later, the unemployment rate has dropped to around 5.6% as of March of 2015(Unemployment). This video gives more of an in depth look at the effects of the return of LeBron James on the economic conditions of Cleveland.

Additionally, we must consider just how much LeBron James is making a year and how that amount of money can stimulate a city, and basketball organization. According to Forbes, he will bank close to $42 million dollars just from endorsements alone. Mostly from Nike, but other big name brands too. Obviously, a player with such a big name and reputation is going to draw a crowd when it comes to events, like basketball. People could argue that with the increased ticket prices, hotel prices, and everything else it will draw money out of the city but that is just not the case. The money will flow through the economy and end up benefiting the state and city anyways. Don’t forget that if more people are at the games, or in town at the hotels and restaurants, more jobs will be created. According to Bleacher Report, 550 jobs have been created just because of the return of LeBron. It seems like a small amount but for a city that is recovering from a high unemployment rate, that’s a good start.

To conclude, yes the opportunity cost of leaving Miami was going to a team who hadn’t won the championships but the economic benefit for the city was well worth it. Disregarding whether or not LeBron James is a personal favorite, there is no denying that he has made an impact on the Cavalier basketball program, and the Cleveland economy alike.

Works Cited

Appelbaum, Binyamin. "Will the LeBron James Stimulus Be Good for Cleveland?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 8 Nov. 2014. Web. 5 May 2015.  

"Examining Economic Impact in LeBron's Return." Bleacher Report. Web. 5 May 2015.  

"Kobe, LeBron Lead NBA's Highest Paid Players 2014." Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Web. 5 May 2015.  

"This Is How Much LeBron James Could Boost Cleveland's Economy." Time. Time. Web. 5 May 2015.  

"Unemployment Rates for Metropolitan Areas." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Web. 5 May 2015.