What the heck is a white paper?

(Dead Tree or Detailed Treatise: What is a white paper?) By Michael Stelzner

In May 2001, in his paper The Art of the White Paper, Gordon Graham recorded that a Google search on the phrase “white papers” resulted in 1.4 million responses. However, by January of 2006, that number skyrocketed to 272 million!

Graham describes white papers as persuasive essays and observes that their style rests “somewhere between a lively magazine article and a dry-as-dust academic paper.” He adds that white papers are fact-driven and contain useful information, expert opinions and iron-clad logic.

According to Jonathan Kantor, founder of The Appum Group, white papers reveal the features of products or services and translate them into business advantages. Kantor suggests that a white paper should logically present information, beginning with challenges and ending with a strategy to resolve issues.

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