Events converged in 1995 to change the printing world. Before that, it was the old printing industry. After that it would be the new printing industry. That year, paper, the Internet, the portable document format, the CD, and the PC converged to create a new paradigm. The number of printing companies would reach 62,000 in 1995 and it would be the highest number of printers ever.

Publishers have vivid accounts of the Great Paper Shortage of 1995, when demand overwhelmed supply and prices shot up. The upheaval started in the late 1980s, when consumption peaked and a paper shortage drove prices up. Producers built new machines that oversupplied the market and sent prices plummeting below production cost during 1991-94. Elimination of old machines, combined with an uptick in consumption and pulp sales to overseas markets, again tightened the supply line in 1995 and led to unprecedented high prices and shortages. Many of us forget that there was a commercial paper shortage.

To deal with the 1995 paper shortage the Federal Government enacted the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and later the Clinger-Cohen Reform Act of 1996. Agencies had the authority and responsibility to make measurable improvements in mission performance and service delivery to the public through the strategic application of information technology.