The Personalised Newspaper is here

On the 16th of November the first personalised newspaper went live in Berlin. Its name ‘niiu’ is also a reminder that we embark on something new here. Long have been the discussions on producing a personalised printed newspaper, but it took some youthful outsiders to the industry to take the charge. It is too early to judge a commercial success, but it is surely interesting to have a look at how the personalised newspaper is achieved.
There are several things a subscriber can personalise with niiu. First the subscriber can add some gimmicks to the first page, like giving the paper a self selected title and motto or add a personal picture. More useful is a weather forecast info box for a town you can select and a stock chart. For the different sections of the newspaper the subscriber can select editorial content from a set of newspapers. Moreover he can choose how many pages he wants from any paper, he can even choose content from several papers for the same section or skip sections altogether. The range of newspaper supplying editorial content rank from the yellow press (like Bild and BZ) to the more reputable papers like a leading German financial paper (Handelsblatt). The geographic spread covers local German papers from cities as Berlin to less well known places as Osnabrück and includes international papers such as the New York Times, Washington Times or the Komsomolskaya Pravda. For example a subscriber can choose the title page from the a leading national paper, add the local pages for Berlin and one page from the town his family lives in, combined with the economy section of a leading financial magazine, the New York times culture pages (for the next trip to the big apple) and the sports section from a more cheerful & colourful paper.

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TKS to Unveil JetLeader Production Color Inkjet Newspaper System

At the JANPS newspaper production show in Tokyo later this month a web offset press manufacturer called TKS (Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho) will be unveiling a production color inkjet newspaper system called JetLeader. It is a roll-fed device that prints at speeds of 150 meters per minute (492 feet per minute) and has a maximum print width of 541 millimeters (21.3 inches) on a maximum roll width of 546 millimeters (21.5 inches). It uses piezo drop-on-demand inkjet heads and aqueous pigment inks. TKS says it can print on groundwood newsprint at weights of 60 gsm or higher. The configuration that will be shown at JANPS will be process color on one side of the web and monochrome on the other (4/1) and will include a sheeter and accumulator. TKS says that a 4/4 configuration will be available upon launch at the end of this month. Pricing has not been released. In addition to the standalone JetLeader newspaper system, TKS will also demonstrate a hybrid offset/inkjet offering at JANPS. Read more »

Obama Win Prompts Additional Newspaper Runs

On the way home the other night, I was listening to the radio and I heard a story that started out by saying: “The printed word is not dying by a long shot.” That’s always encouraging news to hear, especially from a media outlet not involved with print at all. The story went on to describe how people were lining up at newsstands all over the US to pick up newspapers with headlines about the election of Barack Obama’s as the next President. Many newsstands ran out quickly, which prompted some newspapers, including the Washington Post, New York Times, and Chicago Sun-Times, to reprint hundreds of thousands of additional copies. This story was also published yesterday on AdvertisingAge’s website. Read more »

The Digital Opportunity for Newspapers

I’ve been doing a lot research on digital opportunities for the newspaper industry lately and wanted to share some interesting facts:

• In 2007, newspapers saw the biggest decline in newspaper print advertising expenditures in history with a loss of 9.4% (source: NAA).
• Classified advertising expenditures peaked in 2000 at $19.6 billion, representing more than 40% of total newspaper advertising expenditures. That number has declined by 27% in the last seven years as newspapers have been unable to compete with new online tools (i.e. Craigslist).
• Online advertising still only represents 7% of all newspaper advertising expenditures (source: NAA).
• The cost of newsprint represents 31% of a newspaper printers income (source: PIA/GATF).
• The average price of newsprint in August, 2008 was $728/tonne, compared to an average price of $558/tonne in 2000.
• In the 1990’s a 50-inch Web-width was standard. Today, most newspapers have reduced the width of their Web to 48, 46, or even 44 inches.

These are just a few of many statistics that point out what is already obvious to everyone; newspapers are struggling. Costs continue to increase, while advertisers move their money to other mediums.

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