Similarly, book buyers do not act as a cohesive group and were seen to be unlikely to play an important role at this stage, largely because of the technical complexity of the issues. School boards and lending libraries were discounted because the average lifetimes of books that they hold are typically three to five years. Many publishers were issuing books printed on alkaline or permanent paper without being aware of it. Almost all distributors in Canada have a national presence and there are only roughly 10 to 15 national distributors, most owned by paper manufacturers. Despite this, they continue to offer papers obtained from a variety of sources.
Distributors supply printers and influence their selection of paper products.
In turn printers influence publishers. Normally, when a printer shows paper samples to a client, they are packaged in the promotional material of the distributor, not that of the manufacturer or the printer. The distributor is therefore a very important player in influencing paper selection, and needed to be targeted in the strategy. Their interviews showed that there was a general lack of awareness of permanent paper issues amongst all links in the paper chain and also no appreciation of the infinity symbol or the possibilities of using it as a marketing tool even amongst those who knew about permanent paper. In short, if the Library was trying to sell people on the benefits of permanent paper, it had to be sure that it ultimately developed some customers.