Three years ago in February 2006, I wrote the blog entry below for a previous incarnation of this site. Having read “The Scotsman’s Insanity is an industry problem” I still think I nailed it. This is a good idea, so I’m resurrecting and “reprinting” it, if only to be able to say “I told you so” if and when it happens.
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The Future of Newsprint (First published 15/02/06)
There was a piece in Creative Review last month regarding the new Observer redesign. All mostly the usual “it’s great”, “it sucks” stuff. Amongst the industry bitchfest though, were some very forward thinking ideas from Jon Hill (http://www.jonhilldesign.co.uk/ [URL Now Defunct]). His premise is that within a few years, amongst other things, you’ll see newspapers being printed sectionally on-demand. This article just takes this idea and builds on some of the practicalities of that.
The current problem for the newspapers is that with the advent and spread of 24-hour news channels, internet news and the ever-expanding blogosphere they’re becoming irrelevant. People consume news online, on their phones, even waiting around for trains on big screens, all for free. The prevailing view is that newspapers will become more focused on in-depth reporting and almost become “viewspapers”.
But what if you could do something a little cleverer than this? Imagine getting a newspaper on your way to work that was right up to the moment, cheaper than what you pay now, and tailored to what you wanted to read.
A vending kiosk at stations, garages etc with a touchscreen interface could dispense only the elements of the normal paper that you wanted, charging accordingly. The paper would be printed A4 on-demand in the kiosk itself. The clever element though would be a web link that would allow the paper to be constantly updated “live” throughout the day, so you’d never have an out-of-date news story on the way home. And in a twist of fate, this would no doubt be done using XML feeds, thereby competing with the bloggers and news websites using their own technology.
A handy side-effect would be the ability to constantly update advertisements within the paper, which would be great from advertisers perspectives, allowing them up-to-the-moment tie-ins with events, as well as a new segment for the creative industry to exploit.
Taking it a step further, customers could sign up for an more in-depth personalised newspaper on a website, and then pick it up on the way to work from the kiosk. Again, this would enhance the advertising potential of the papers, and potentially allow customers to pay a premium to be rid of adverts too.
A system like this would allow news editors to keep their papers up to date, and maybe claw back some of that depleting market share. It provides an elegant and innovative approach to news distribution which could run alongside traditional papers and online/24-hour tv outlets.
Lastly, it’s worth noting that people are still reading newspapers. Why? Because reading from paper is still so much nicer than reading from screen, plus people like them because they mean something to us. Newspapers have a future, and the public want to see it.
