The Personal Newspaper

Woe is us

2010-10-18T06:51:00.001-07:00

Once again the confusion sets in: is print dead or is one size fits all dead?
Read this.

(go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/oct/17/newspaper-abcs-websites-internet-news)

From the guardian.co.uk

We thought the internet was killing print. But it isn't
There is no clear correlation between a rise in internet traffic and a fall in newspaper circulation. Some papers are growing in both formats, others are succeeding in neither, according to new research.

by Peter Preston, The Observer

The woe, as usual, is more or less unconfined. September's daily newspaper circulation figures, as audited by ABC, are down 5.31% in a year: Sunday totals are 6.7% off the pace. And, of course, we all know what's to blame. It's the infernal internet, the digital revolution, the iPad, laptop and smartphone taking over from print. Online is the coming death of Gutenberg's world, inexorable, inevitable, the enemy of all we used to hold dear. Except that it isn't.

A fascinating new piece of research this week looks in detail at the success of newspaper websites and attempts to find statistical correlations with sliding print copy sales. As one goes up, the other must go down, surely? These are the underpinnings of transition.

But "in the UK at least, there is no such correlation", reports the number-crunching analyst Jim Chisholm. "This is true at both a micro-level in terms of UK newspaper titles and groups and at a macro-level comparing national internet adoption with circulation performance. Indeed, the opposite case could be argued: that newspapers that do well on the web also do better in print… Understandably worried traditional journalists should know that the internet is not a threat."

Chisholm's aim is to prod British publishers into renewed web action – citing the Guardian, Telegraph and Independent particularly for producing the highest ratios of monthly unique visitors to their sites when compared against print circulations. (The Guardian, with a 125 unique-visitor-to-print ratio, is far higher than any other European paper he can find, and also generates over three times the number of UK page impressions relative to its circulation). Moreover, UK national papers as a whole score well on such tests, clear top of the EU league and walloping German performance nine times over.

Could they, and British regionals, do better, though? Indeed they could. "The issue is not one of total audience, but of frequency and loyalty – and online, as in print, newspapers are great at attracting readers from time to time, but they don't attract them often enough, and they don't hang around."

At which point, perhaps, it's time to look at the flipside of Chisholm's findings. If the name of one game is frequency and loyalty – via investment, innovation, constant linkages and promotions – might that not also be an answer to drooping print sales as well? If you reject the net as an agent of newsprint doom, then reverse scenarios also apply.

Go back to ABC circulations before newspaper websites really began – say September 1995 – to make the point. One, the Daily Star, is doing better than 15 years ago with no net presence to speak of: 757,080 copies in 1995 against 864,315 last month. The Daily Mail, at 2,144,229 this September against 1,866,197, is well up, with a website growing by more than 60% a year. Some – say the Mirror, down from 2,559, 636 to 1,213,323 – have suffered direly. See: no correlations?

The Guardian, Times and Telegraph are all down by around a third, and the Sun has lost more than a million: but again there's no mechanical relationship here. Price matters. It always does. But investment and innovation matter as well. They always do. And you can't help by being struck how little of that goes on in print these days. A pull-out section vanishes, and comes back. Single-theme front pages come and go at the Indy. The Telegraph still looks for somewhere else to put its features. Nothing much changes. Another researcher (at Enders Analysis) calculates that papers have lopped 20% of the pages they put in a decade ago in order to bulwark sharply rising cover prices.

No correlations here, either? Nothing to prove that the more effort and talent you put in, the more you get out? More, more, more ... and more research, please.

Prospering in Chicago

2010-10-01T06:18:00.000-07:00

I've had several requests from blog readers to follow up with more details about the Chicago Tribune Direct's purchase of a Kokak Proper press for direct mail and potential niche publications use (see blog entry "Flatfooted No More" Sept.29, 2010).

Following up with Tim Street (director of Tribune Direct Marketing), here are a few more details about their plans.

Although they have purchased the Kodak Prosper 1000 they expect to have the 5000Xl in place hopefully by Q1 2011.

They have had a lot of success in the past few years with Kodak presses in their direct mail business, which has grown 100 percent, although they have visited with and analyzed many of the other digital presses available on the market.

Now they want to follow their recent success into new opportunities for their customers, including the ability to print on multiple substrates and go as quickly as possible, in the 650 feet per minute range. (Tribune Direct is strictly a digital printing company with no offset presses.)

When asked about reference to potential "niche" publications, Street deferred to Paul Lynch (senior manager/quality/commercial printing, Chicago Tribune) as someone who is more focussed on such solutions, but Street posited that possibly Tribune Direct:
1. Could use the Prosper pressed to print publications with tiered advertising directed at different audiences.
Or
2. Could, for instance, print publications for attendees at events at McCormick Place with targeted offers for the attendees such as local restaurants.

Speaking of events at the McCormick Place, Tim pointed out that during Graph Expo 2010, starting on Sunday, the Kzone will live stream discussions of the Tribune developments including from 10:30-11 a.m. Central Time on Monday, Oct. 4 this program, called "Owning the Competition with Digital Print":

The gloves are off. And Tribune Direct is taking it to the competition with the Kodak Prosper Press platform. How? By bringing new, exciting direct mail capabilities to its customers nationwide. Learn how the revolutionary combination of quality and variability at the speed of offset is helping Tribune Direct knock out the competition.
Moderator
Dave Zwang, Zwang & Co.
Panelists:
• Lou Tazioli, President, Tribune Direct • Tim Klunder, Vice President of Sales and Client
Relations, Tribune Direct • Ronen Cohen, Kodak

Visit http://www.Kzonelive.com for the discussions.

Breakthrough

2010-09-27T13:05:00.001-07:00

Now here's a press announcement worth remarking: The Chicago Tribune has bought a Kodak digital inkjet press in order to do variable data printing. That means that the personal newspaper is not logistically, technologically plausible.

Visit: http://newsandtech.com/dateline/article_27a441e8-ca63-11df-a1f2-001cc4c03286.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

From a News and Tech magazine twitter:

The Chicago Tribune’s Tribune Direct Marketing unit put into operation a black-and-white digital press from Kodak for its direct-mail and niche printing, becoming one of a handful of U.S. newspaper publishers to deploy digital printing within their operations. It plans to upgrade the press to a full-color model next year.
The Tribune’s Prosper 1000 is part of Kodak’s family of digital presses. The line, introduced earlier this year, is driven by the vendor’s Stream Inkjet technology, which uses air deflection and silicon nozzles to produce sharp images at speeds of up to 650 feet per minute, Kodak said.
“We believe the Prosper press will be a game-changer for our industry,” said Lou Tazioli, president of Tribune Direct, in a statement.
In addition to direct mail pieces, Tribune Direct will use the press to produce niche publications and other highly targeted printed materials, Tribune said. It will upgrade the platform to a full-color Prosper 5000XL, capable of producing magazines and inserts as well as direct-mail, next year.
Other U.S. publishers with digital printing presses are Investor’s Business Daily parent O’Neil Data Systems, which last year ramped up an HP Inkjet Web Press at its Los Angeles facility to print direct-mail pieces, and Newsworld, which produces a number of international papers for distribution in the New York region on a Screen Truepress Jet520.

Hear hear

2010-09-23T11:18:00.001-07:00

How about hearing your newspaper, instead of reading it? Would that personalize the experience for you. Check it out. It's already happening.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LI24Df04.html

The full text from the Asia Times:

Adventure of the talking newspaper
By Raja Murthy

MUMBAI - As with over two million others in India, I got a shock on Tuesday morning when I opened my daily newspaper and heard a voice from within its pages. I dropped the newspaper in surprise, and the voice stopped. On opening it again, a male voice bleated about German engineering.

It was my eerie moment of history, the era of speaking newspapers had dawned, with no advance warning, and I had become part of all its attendant wonderful and nightmarish possibilities.

Using a small, ingenious, light-sensor activated, voice-recorded device glued to the newspaper page, the Times of India and The Hindu carried an audio advertisement launching a new Volkswagen car model on September 21. The two leading Indian

dailies, both over 100 years old, became the world's first multimedia newspapers of a kind perhaps never imagined by Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press in around 1441.

The talking paper launched the Vento, a premium entry-level sedan and the latest offering from top-selling Volkswagen India Group that markets the Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen brands. Volkswagen India reported growth of 120.7% in its latest sales figures for January to July 2010.

The newspaper audio continued Volkswagen India's reputation for innovative marketing - such as "Roadblocked" last November, when it took over the entire advertising space in all of the 16 Times of India editions across India, for its Polo hatchback model.
Volkswagen releasing the first-ever audio page in print media opened up a Pandora's box of ideas: will the next James Bond movie have newspapers singing out the theme? Will cash-rich political parties be demanding votes through talking newspapers next elections? Worse, imagine sitting inside a train or an aircraft with a babble of audio papers.

Given the responses the next day, on September 22, there may be a hundred other duplicate ideas of yakkety-yak magazines and newspapers. But now that it is known that paper can be made to speak, that first pristine moment of utter astonishment has passed. Memorable, though, is the inaugural experience of what I had never thought of before: a newspaper talking.

For a few seconds, I had rarely been more bewildered than on hearing a voice coming from the newspaper in the early morning. My first confused thought was that somehow a cell phone had found its way into the pages by mistake - but then, even cell phones can't start talking by themselves, and I don't own a cell phone. When I saw what the voice was, I couldn't help smiling: a full-page car advertisement on a back page, with a two-inch black rectangular box glued to it doing the talking.

The astonishment was more because there were no advance warnings or teaser advertisements in days leading up to the caper. The edition with the voice carried a small note to "Our Readers: The Times of India and Volkswagen have created four pages of content as a sort of a special media innovation. Don't miss reading and listening to this 'speaking newspaper'!"

But I found this message only after looking for it.

"Best in class German engineering is here," announces the male voice. "The new Volkswagen Vento. Built with great care and highly innovative features, perhaps that's why it breaks the hearts of our engineers to watch it drive away. The new Volkswagen Vento, crafted with so much passion, it's hard to let it go. Volkswagen. Das Auto."

The message repeats itself, until the news page is folded sufficiently to block the pinhole-sized perforation on the black audio box through which lights travels to sensor to trigger the recorded disk.

Varied, colorful responses were reported across India to opening a newspaper and hearing it talk. They ranged from frightened children to a Mumbai police bomb squad rushing to investigate suspicious noises coming from a litter-bin near S L Raheja Hospital in suburban Mahim - some irritated reader had chucked away the black chatterbox, which can continue talking for nearly two-and-a-half hours.

A startled housemaid reportedly picked up the talking newspaper and screamed "ghost", an understandable reaction given the stories I heard as a kid about ghosts violently slapping people opening the front door at dawn - probably as grouchy farewell before the spooks vanish at sunrise.

Hundreds of messages about the morning newspaper experience flooded social networking sites like Twitter. "The Volkswagen talking ad in today's TOI [Times of India] scared the hell out of me!" tweeted one. "It's both funny and weird."

More proof of how the astonished mind can produce any thought came with one startled reader revealing he had thought the wall behind his newspaper was talking.

Not everyone was startled or impressed. Bangalore resident Rani Venugopal scolded the Times of India for creating an environmental problem with all the plastic that will be thrown away with the newspaper.

The bearded, bear-like Prahlad Kakkar, a prominent Mumbai-based advertising filmmaker, complained of an intrusive, unwelcome advertisement before breakfast. "When a man gets up in the morning, he wakes up with the newspaper and this is the only time of peace and solace in the day," Kakkar told a Times of India reporter. "The voice box intruded into this space and I did not know how to stop it."

Even so, I bought an extra copy to relish again the childhood habit of dismantling fascinating toys to explore the innards. The two-inch, featherweight, hollow rectangular "voice box" contained two button cells wired into a disc about an inch wide that produces the repetitive message.

I thought it was lighter pressure of fingers or of folded newspaper pages that activated the voice - but the Times of India declared the next day that a light-sensitive device worked the moment the pages were even half open.

The iPod-sized gizmos with the speaker, chip and batteries are made at a Volkswagen factory in China. Mumbai resident and Volkswagen India manager Lutz Kothe said his 14-year-old niece, Beatrix Madersbacher, gave him the idea during a business trip to Munich.

Beatrix may have had a brainwave or seen the idea on the Internet. In early 2009, Lalit Pahwa, director of a small Mumbai-based publisher, Pioneer Book Co, had talked about a pre-recorded audio chip embedded in a newspaper or magazine page. It would start playing when the reader opened the page and stop when page was turned. But Pahwa could not implement the idea for the two women's magazines he publishes.

The German connection though was appropriate in enabling the world's first speaking newspapers. Apart from Gutenberg, another German, Johann Carolus (1575-1634), published the first-ever generally acknowledged newspaper - his "Relation", or Relation aller Furnemmen und gedenckwurdigen Historien (Collection of all distinguished and commemorable news) was published from 1605.

It took nearly six months of working logistics for the September 21 edition of the Times of India and The Hindu to carry the talking page - 2.5 million copies of the edition were selectively distributed in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

The copies had become collectors' items in Mumbai by the next morning, the concluding day of the city's biggest annual festival of Ganesha, the charismatic god of enterprise and adventure.

(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

Long time coming

2010-09-19T07:14:00.001-07:00

It's been a long time coming. But it's here. The first local website to become a local print publication that I've heard about. Why has this been so hard to see? Targeted print publications have always had the same DNA as websites, so why hasn't this happened many times before. Why have the creation of websites from print publications come in droves, in millions, in billions, in zillions, before a local print publication from a website. It should have been a two-way street from the beginning, but I guess the construction crews arbitrarily -- or rather the culture police arbitrarily -- decided it was a one way street.

To see the full story visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2010/sep/16/hyperlocal-blog-hu17-beverley-paul-smith-print

Or here it is:

Hyperlocal blogger expands into print publishing
Website publisher launches full colour weekly

A hyperlocal news site owner has launched into print with a low cost advertising weekly for Beverley.

Paul Smith is known to many bloggers for campaigning to clear his name after the Hull Daily Mail accused him of activity in the porn industry and questioned his fitness to run the website HU17.net in high-profile coverage in the area.

But several stressful months on – and with a partially upheld PCC complaint against the paper behind him – Smith has stepped up his local publishing venture by launching in their backyard.

He told me how the new venture was progressing:

"The first edition was just sport with no other editorial, it was more as a promotional idea though has evolved since then. Now it is 28 pages in full colour on A4 pages.

"It is for everyone in the town though it seems to appeal to those who are out and about – ie who use the shops, bars and or play sport in the area".

Competition

The newspaper competes for its readers, and advertisers, with the Johnston Press's Beverley Guardian as well as the Hull Daily Mail's own Beverley Advertiser.

Cover Photograph: Paul Smith/guardian.co.uk
What Smith calls his "magic formula'' is a mixture of pictures capturing local events under the strapline 'it's all about Beverley' and low cost advertising - £5 per week for a good sized advert.

"I am told people like to see who is in it, I think it also helps that the content is exclusive and very niche. Having an established web site has helped, people know the brand too."

The print version hits the streets each Tuesday and is distributed to drop off places in Beverley such as bars, barbers and social clubs.

"Local shops have been very supportive with many signing up to advertising package that is realistic and very affordable, something that was certainly needed in the area.

"We still only make a limited number up to 100 copies but each one gets seen by lots of people."

HU17 can also be accessed online at HU17.net and on Facebook.

The beat goes on

2010-03-23T09:38:00.001-07:00

Individual news venture
debuts at SXSW
As reported this morning by News and Tech at
http://www.newsandtech.com/whats_new/article_44b9118e-35dd-11df-9c6d-001cc4c002e0.html:

London-based startup Newspaper Club brought its concept of individually produced newspapers to the United States last week when its backers created newspaper prototypes at a SXSW new media seminar in Austin, Texas.
The firm, whose Arthr software allows anyone to create up to a 12-page newspaper, handed out papers that were printed by the Austin American-Statesman, according to a blog posted by Fast Company magazine.
Once the papers were handed out to seminar attendees, Fast Company wrote that Twitter user @mattb reported, “The newspapers are passed out and the quiet sound of typing sounds to the white noise of paper rustling.”
Newspaper Club is currently only available in the United Kingdom, where users can generate their own newspapers, either in color or black-and-white, or have Newspaper Club produce one for them. Prices range around $500 for 300 black-and-white editions to $2,200 for 5,000 full-color copies.

Forrester Research presentation at paidContent 2010

2010-03-04T11:40:00.001-08:00

Here's the one point I want to make before you check out this SlideShare Presentation. The newspaper subscription used to pay for access to the content, so the theory is consistent, that people don't pay for content they pay for access:

Forrester Research presentation at paidContent 2010

View more presentations from Christian Santiago.

INMA in tune

2010-02-10T10:50:00.000-08:00

Richard Hall of Digital Technology International gave a presentation at the International Newspaper Marketing Association convention in Copenhagen which is pure personal newspaper. Check the powerpoint out and enjoy.

If that link doesn't work here is the URL: http://www.slideshare.net/TomCorbett/richard-hall-3102448

Numbers and more numbers

2010-01-02T21:45:00.000-08:00

I could get dizzy following the numbers on print-online newspaper audience, but this post seems to have the weight of reality under it.

Fidler in the rough

2009-12-28T14:04:00.000-08:00

Roger Fidler, who first imagined the now arriving (2010) tablet newspaper in 1992 when he convinced the Knight Ridder Co. to underwrite the Information Design Lab in Boulder, Co., has always looked at the future of the newspaper business as primarily a production, manufacturing and distribution challenge.
But the biggest change is the fact that news must become personal, which is why I have since 1999 argued for the personal newspaper, a clunker of a term, no doubt.
Anyway, check out the video on this site to get a fascinating view on the history of the evolution/transition of newspapers in the 21st Century.
Like a diamond in the rough, Roger Fidler is a superstar.

Post-Kindle

2009-12-02T10:54:00.001-08:00

So we are now post-Kindle. Here come the digitized magazines WITH advertisemnts. Can newspapers be far behind? Hoorah. Last month Conde Nast demonstrated its concept of a digitized magazine tablet. Now it’s Time Inc.’s turn: The publisher is demo-ing an iteration of Sports Illustrated compatible with the "upcoming" Apple tablet and/or other tablets. Both publishers will offer add-ons like multimedia and links into the web. But it's the replica aspect here that may make the digitized business model work. Circ-based advertising sales will still work, we hope. And let's hope the magazines are beautiful en tablet.

Magazines galore

2009-11-27T16:32:00.001-08:00

Most of the major magazine companies are collaborating to create an online newsstand, according to a published report. Now if we all just had time to peruse that newsstand. That's what was so great about the brands that had been created already --we knew what brands we wanted before we knew exactly what we wanted from them.
It's great that they will all be on a digital platform so that an individuated search function can find stories of sympatico across the brands. Will they charge by the story? Not sure.
Here's what the New York Observer story said:
"The formation of a new company to run the online newsstand -- sometimes characterized as an 'iTunes for magazines' -- may be announced in early December. Time, Conde Nast, Hearst, and Meredith all intend to be equity partners in the new company, although the deals have not yet been signed.
"In the face of slumping print circulation for many magazines, the publishing houses are eager to exert some control over digital readership, said people at the companies, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the plans.
"In other media sectors, rivals have already formed joint ventures for the Web. Several television networks are stakeholders in Hulu, an online television and film Web site. Some music labels are partners in Vevo, a music video site powered by YouTube that will make its debut next month.
"The new magazine company would, in theory, make it easy to buy print and electronic copies of magazines like The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, and Better Homes and Gardens from a single Web site. While mostly leaving the hardware to others, the alliance of competing publishers would develop software standards for magazine viewing on iPhones, BlackBerrys, e-book readers and other platforms, people familiar with the plans said.
"The New York Observer reported Tuesday that the Time Inc. executive John Squires would become the new outfit's interim chief executive while the partners look for a permanent head. In June, the Time Inc. chairmwoman Ann Moore gave Mr. Squires the responsibility of creating a digital road map for the company.
" 'It's increasingly clear that finding the right digital business model is crucial for the future of our business,' Ms. Moore said in a memorandum at the time. She added, 'We need to develop a strategy for the portable digital world and to refine our views on paid content.' "

Individuated in India

2009-11-25T09:45:00.000-08:00

The individuated newspaper that has debuted in Vienna, Austria, will be reported out at the WAN-IFRA conference next week in India, according to a press release from the global association: "Wanja Oberhof, co-founder of NIUU, which combines paper format with internet convenience, has joined the programme of the World Editors Forum, and will speak in a session devoted to some of the most promising business models being developed today." You can sign up to attend

Yes, boy meets grill

2009-11-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

Jeff Kline is the president of a software company, Accrisoft, who understands where media is headed before it gets there. His most recent blog underscores the reality of individuated news. Under the title "Boy Meets Grill" he explains how social media helped him chose a key retail purchase, not traditional media or advertising. Read it all

Individuated news can help

2009-05-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

So, the only fast growing print advertising medium of the past five years -- direct mail -- looks like it has trouble ahead. A new study from Borrell says that direct mail will lose more than 20 percent of its revenue to email marketing in the next few years.
What could help? Individuated news would be a natural partner to email marketing.

Direct Mail Doomed, Long Live Email
Gavin O'Malley, May 20, 2009 02:59 PM
After making quick work of print newspapers, and the Yellow Pages industry, "The kudzu-like creep of the Internet is about to claim its third analog victim," warns a new report from research firm Borrell Associates. The victim? "The largest and least-read of all print media: Direct mail."
"Direct mail has begun spiraling into what we believe is a precipitous decline from which it will never fully recover," Borrell predicts. More specifically, it is projecting a 39% decline for direct mail over the next five years, from $49.7 billion in annual ad spending in 2008 to $29.8 billion by the end of 2013.
If Borrell is correct, direct mail will fall from the premiere placeholder for ad revenue to the fourth -- behind the Web, broadcast TV, and newspapers.
The downturn is being caused by a perfect storm of worsening economics for printing and delivery and conversely improving economics for competing media, particularly the Internet. In turn, the research firm sees email largely filling the void being left by direct mail.
"Email advertising is indeed skyrocketing while its traditional counterpart plummets," Borrell notes. "In fact, last year, email advertising quietly moved to the No. 1 online ad category spot, surpassing all other forms of interactive advertising." Last year, advertisers spent $12.1 billion on email marketing, more than they spent on display/banner advertising or search advertising.
Borrell is predicting that email will continue to distance itself from other online advertising formats over the next five years, growing to $15.7 billion and remaining the preferred channel among many marketers. In particular, most of the growth in email marketing will be local, the report forecasts.
"We're expecting local e-mail advertising to grow from $848 million in 2008, to $2 billion in 2013, as more small businesses abandon direct mail couponing and promotional orders and turn to a more measurable and less costly medium, e-mail."
Still, the report goes on to warn opportunists that email marketing is not without its risks. "Managing large e-mail marketing campaigns require database marketing expertise, a savvy sales force, adequate e-mail management software, familiarity with the rules and regulations and a lot of patience."
The declines in direct mail have already begun to register at companies such as Valassis, which owns one of the nation's largest direct-mail businesses.
In the first quarter of this year, Valassis' "shared mail" revenue declined 12.7% year-over-year, according to Borrell. Two other direct mailers, meanwhile -- IWCO Direct and Transcontinental USA -- have announced layoffs and facility closings. Of particular note, Borrell credits the rise of coupons online with the demise of direct mail.
Last year, for one, 36% of adults picked up a coupon inside a store and used it, compared with 28% just two years ago. About 8% of all adults now report using coupons delivered via email or the broader Web.

Historic first

2009-05-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

The first individuated weekly newspaper has been printed. (Individuated means that the reader self-selected the content prior to aggregation.)
Ted Agres, assistant managing editor for The Washington Times, called me to say that the weekly edition has been individuated for about 120 subscribers and printed. These copies should be mailed out this week and reach their readers by Wednesday.
This is an historic first.
Although Syntops and the Swiss Post published an individuated newspaper this spring -- it was an unpaid test. And we at MediaNews Group have published individuated news reports for visitors to a hotel in Denver. And Time Magazine offered free to volunteers an individuated magazine in May.
But, the individuated TWT newspapers are going out to paid subscribers.
The Washington Times offered to make a subscriber's weekly different from all the rest, if the subscriber would say what he or she wanted: more international news and less sports news or more cultural news and less columnists, etc. You get it.
Now the readers have chosen and the newspapers that range in pages from 20 to 60 pages each have been printed on an OCE Jetstream, variable data, inkjet printer in Boca Raton, Fla. (The non-individuated newsweeklies were 40 pages.)
A barrier has been broken. Who is next?
Congratulations, The Washington Times, on a long but fruitful journey.

New heights for newspapers

2009-05-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

When I was interviewed last year by Dan Neuharth, the son of USAToday's founder Al Neuharth, I predicted a heyday for newspapers in the 21st Century. I'm glad to see that at least one other person agrees in public: Rupert Murdoch. In light of his decision to begin to charge for online stories I give you an interview in which he predicts new heights for newspapers in the 21 st Century: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/17/rupert-murdoch-internet-newspapers. Please note that Murdoch is not talking exclusively about the printed newspaper but newspaper content over the internet and other platforms.

Now, the cellphone will set you free

2009-05-10T16:49:00.000-07:00

In the NY Times today, the report on the cultural fit of the cellphone in India. The seventh paragraph: "The cellphone serves, then, as a technology of individuation. On the cellphone, you are your own person. No one answers your calls or reads your messages. Your number is just yours."

The whole story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/weekinreview/10giridharadas.html?ref=world

VERLA, India — Sometimes a technology comes along and crystallizes a cultural moment. Not since Americans and their automobiles in the 1950s, perhaps, have a people and a technology wedded as happily as Indians and their cellphones — small and big, vibrating and tringing, BlackBerry and plain vanilla.

Times Topics: India

Enlarge This Image

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Enlarge This Image

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

And neither India nor the cellphone will be the same after the pairing. India now adds more cellphone connections than anyplace else, with 15.6 million in March alone. The cost of calling is among the lowest in the world. And the device plays a larger-than-life role here — more so, it seems, than in the wealthy countries where it was invented.

Of course, in so vast a country, India’s nearly 400 million cellphone users still account for only a third of the population. But the technology has seeped down the social strata, into slums and small towns and villages, becoming that rare Indian possession to traverse the walls of caste and region and class; a majority of subscribers are now outside the major cities and wealthiest states. And while the average bill, of less than $5 per month, represents 7 percent of the average Indian’s income, enough Indians apparently consider the sacrifice worth it: if present trends continue, in five years every Indian will have a cellphone.

What makes the cellphone special in India? It is partly that India skipped the land-line revolution, making cellphones the first real contact with the outside world for hundreds of millions of people. It is partly that, with few other machines selling so briskly, the cellphone in India is forced variously to be a personal computer, flashlight, camera, stereo, video-game console and day organizer as well. It is partly that India’s relative poverty compels providers to be more creative to survive.

But it is also that the cellphone appeals deeply to the Indian psychology, to the spreading desire for personal space and voice, not in defiance of the family and tribe, but in the chaotic midst of it.

Imagine what it was like — in the Pre-Cellular Age — to be young in a traditional household. People are everywhere. Doors are open. Judgments fly. Bedrooms are shared. What phones exist are centrally located.

The cellphone serves, then, as a technology of individuation. On the cellphone, you are your own person. No one answers your calls or reads your messages. Your number is just yours.

And yet the young Indian rebel, unlike his Western counterpart, does not rebel totally. He wants to savor his new individuality, but do so while sitting with his parents having dinner, listening to his grandmother implore him to get married. He listens, then taps a few keys on his cellphone to escape, then listens some more, and taps, and listens.

The cellphone appeals, too, because it plays into the Indian need to place people. Cellular differences today perform the role that forehead markings and strings around torsos and metal bracelets once did: announcing who outranks whom.

Small people have small phones, and big people have big ones. Small people have numerical-soup numbers, and big people have numbers that end in 77777 or something equally important-sounding or easy to remember. Small people have one phone, and big people have two. Small people set their phones merely to ring, and big people make Bollywood songs play when you call them.

The cellphone, in short, has made itself Indian. There are 65 times more cellphone connections than broadband Internet links, and the gap is widening. And so those who wish to influence Indians are not waiting for the computer to catch on, but are seeking ways to adapt the cellphone to the things Westerners do online.

Indian companies have invented methods, via simple cellphone text-messaging, to wire money to temples, pay for groceries, find jobs and send and receive e-mail messages (on humble phones with no data connection).

But the most intriguing notion is that cellphones could transform Indian democracy.

Even in this voting season — the results of a four-week election will be announced May 16 — Indians are famously cynical about their senior-citizen-dominated, dynastic, corrupt politics. The educated often sit out elections. But with cellphones becoming near universal, experiments are sprouting with the goal of forging a new bond between citizen and state, through real-time, 24-hour cellular participation.

In the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, citizens who file a right-to-information request can now check its status via text message. Anyone who has been to an Indian government office, begging men in safari suits to do their job, will welcome this service.

A number of civic groups, meanwhile, have devised cellphone-based ways of informing voters about candidates for Parliament. If you text your postal code to the Association for Democratic Reforms, it will reply with candidate profiles like this:

CANDIDATE A Crim. Cases - No, Assets 175373142, Liab 0, Edu graduate_professional

CANDIDATE B Crim. Cases - Yes (1), Assets 445015617, Liab 2489959, Edu illiterate

A new interactivity is dawning in the news media, too. Now, via cellphone, citizens are talking back to the press, creating a continuous feedback loop between reporters and the public opinion they shape. Channels solicit text messages during broadcasts to air opinions and to poll viewers. Comments crawl across the screen as the talking heads talk.

In 2006, a court acquitted Manu Sharma, a politician’s son, of the murder of a model, Jessica Lall, even though several witnesses testified that they had seen him shoot her. This was nothing new in India. But a groundswell of text-message anger made its way onto television screens and compelled officials to retry Mr. Sharma. He was eventually convicted and given a life sentence.

Imagine the future: a young woman sits on her sofa. With a few taps, she checks that her tax return has been cleared. With a few more, she learns that her local legislator is a criminal, and she switches to the other candidate. She wires a campaign contribution by text. And then she notices on television a debate on her favorite topic, and listens to the arguments and taps hurriedly into her phone words that will soon scroll across the screen.

It is not Athens, but it would be a start: in the world’s largest democracy, government not by passive consent, but by something like a conversation.

Next Article in Week in Review (5 of 7) »

Wolf at the door

2009-05-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Can the wolf at the door understand that it's not the platform that is failing, it's the lack of personalized content?: http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/magazines-newspapers/e3ic3df7625da5868c128efd4cf4aa581b1

Oops

2009-05-07T14:00:00.001-07:00

No advertising on the Kindle DX: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2009/tc2009056_655180.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis

Personalize the E-readers

2009-05-06T16:01:00.001-07:00

Many people are pontificating about the new super-sized Kindle and the other e-readers and/or plastic logic products -- but some people recognize that these new platform plays are really turf plays, efforts to control content and distribution. Read Will Bunch in the Philadelphia Daily News --http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/The_scoop_on_newspapers_giving_out_free_electronics.html --- for instance. He compares the new attitude to the old attitude: Get the Internet out of my backyard! But if Individuated News -- self-selected news -- were available on these new formats, the utility and power and compelling content of the web would be included -- instead of excluded.

An informed perspective

2009-05-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

Manfred Werfel, as research director and deputy CEO of IFRA (the European press association), has been outspoken in favor of developing individuated newspapers. Read a recent interview: http://www.ifra.com/website/ntwebsite.NSF/wuis/4EFA05E5D76FF3AEC125722F0063D53B?OpenDocument&99&E&. His most compelling presentation is a 2007 powerpoint entitled "The Personalised Newspaper." If you would like to have a copy, email me at pvandevanter@medianewsgroup.com and I would be glad to email you the file.

Watching with bated breath

2009-05-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

The Detroit changes have so much fodder for analysis. Today's word about the 30,000 e-editions is similar to what we are finding at many MediaNews Group newspapers -- people are beginning to pay and use e-editions in greater numbers.

Kindle super-sized

2009-05-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

For those of us who love to read on the kindle: http://www.pcworld.com/article/164277/possible_jumbo_kindle_coming_wednesday_print_media_savior.html

The old state of the state

2009-05-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

Or the state of the old state. A fascinating research report of the depressive kind. One small upbeat excerpt:"Newspaper publishers are looking to find new advertisers by devising niche publications that cater to individual interests." This from the National Press Club's Journalism at a Juncture.

Raise a glass

2009-04-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

Let's raise a glass to print: http://www.wan-press.org/article18113.html

Individuated and non-profit?

2009-04-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Can Individuated content work for non-profits? http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=123&aid=162752

Content may be king again

2009-04-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

As sources of content proliferate, the ability to individuate a newspaper prospers. Hooray: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/28/associated-content-raises-6-million-for-publishing-platform/

Google weighs in

2009-04-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

Sooner or later we knew it would happen as Eric inferred last month when he addressed the Newspaper Association of America meeting: http://www.editorsweblog.org/newsrooms_and_journalism/2009/04/googles_plans_to_bring_news_to_readers_b.php

A dream come true

2009-04-29T07:18:00.000-07:00

I dreamed years ago that we would get newspapers and books out of print on demand kiosks. Here we go: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/24/espresso-book-machine-launches

Adweek: Kodak Zooms In on Women

2009-04-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

"Kodak is using an arsenal of national media properties anchored by assets under the recently formed Women@NBCU banner to drive a value message for its fledgling printer and ink business," reports Steve McClellan in Adweek.

Newspapers & Technology's Year in Review

2009-04-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

Catch up with the top industry news from 2008, published this month by N&T.

PrintWeek: an "explosion" in digital newspapers

2009-04-25T13:38:00.000-07:00

"The reason for the explosion in digital newspapers is simple: the improvements in digital technology, both press and post-press," writes Adam Hooker in PrintWeek.

Catching up with Printcasting

2009-04-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

Dan Pacheco, who'll be speaking at INC 3, describes the latest on Printcasting in a recent post at the MediaShift Idea Lab.

What would you like to see at INC 3?

2009-04-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

Send a note to globaliste(at)yahoo.com about what you'd like to see, hear and learn at the Individuated News Conference and we'll publish the wish list.

It's Time

2009-04-24T13:59:00.000-07:00

I don't think the glitches really hurt the breakthrough aspects of Time's first foray into individuation.

California Dreaming

2008-10-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

The October cover story of Presstime, the Newspaper Association of America's monthly magazine, has a tantalizing title: "Digital Printing: Newspapers inch toward personalized editions."
Interesting. So now two of the industry's three monthly magazines have weighed in: "Newspapers and Technology" said media is blazing toward individuated products, and now Presstime says it's inching in that direction.
No matter the speed -- the hare and the tortoise both get to the finish line -- the NAA article had one exciting piece of information. Investor's Business Daily in Los Angeles this fall is venturing into microzoning by incorporating variable datea into news sections, using an HP Inkjet Web Press in the beta.

Nirvana yes

2008-10-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

A clear-headed blog addresses the simple fact: 100 percent variable, digital, inkjet printing will be a reality for the newspaper business, just a matter of time.
Entitled "The case for the Individuated Newspaper" by Andrew Gordon of OCE, the piece points out that "Core strengths, like local knowledge, rich content, market research, advertising and distribution are significant competitive differentiators that newspapers can use to compete against other forms of media."
Gordon predicts "a perfect storm" and: "Surviving this period of transition requries developing strategies that move away from the broad-reach circulations dictated by underutilized fixed assets."
OCE was one of the pioneers of out-of-market newspaper printing (i.e. printing The Washington Post in London for same-day reading) with its Digital Newspaper Network utilizing digital presses at the remote location.
Now OCE is encouraging the newspaper industry to consider the "significant opportunities in printing niche products and local and smaller circulation papers" with the new digital presses.
Read the whole thing at http://www.thedigitalnirvana.com Oct. 3.

Long Tail

2008-10-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

Individuated news is clearly the Long Tail of Media, and individuated newspapers may just as clearly be the tail that wags the printed dog.
But Chris Anderson makes a very important point in his book ("The Long Tail", Hyperion, 2006, hardcover, 237 pages, $24.95) on page 148 when he suggests that today's business must both be the head and the tail: "Successful Long Tail aggregators need to have both hits and niches.."
That's why the first incarnation of the personal newspaper may be a personalized wrap of a broadsheet or tabloid. Visit and enjoy http://www.longtail.com/.

The "I-pod" newspaper

2008-10-01T04:46:00.000-07:00

If you are intested in the future of newspapers, you can read about the "I-pod" approach to newspapers at http://www.newsandtech.com/ and go to the front page of the September issue, which is http://www.newsandtech.com/issues/2008/September/nt/09-08_medianews.htm.

Democracy

2008-09-27T01:26:00.000-07:00

Newspapers are the cornerstone of democracy.
(No, not anymore. Only a little more than half the people in America read a newspaper on a weekly basis.)
Yes, now more than ever. People can more clearly develop their opinions because the sources of content have multiplied. And the power of the intellectual ruling class (i.e. editors) who filter and censor and control the flow of information is dying.
Newspapers need to be the leaders in this true democratization of information. Newspapers need to liberate its readers. Give them what they are truly curious about.

Individuated

2008-09-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

Many people have questioned the new term "Individuated" for the type of self-selected news and news products we are contemplating. But one venerable critic/media authority has come down firmly on the side of the term: Vin Crosby of Syracuse University, the author of Digital Deliverance. Read his analysis at http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3630054. And I might add -- perhaps coincidentally -- Wikipedia also now agrees. Look up "individuation" and under the Media Industry Use of Individuation subhead you'll find: "The term Individuation has begun to be used within the media industries to denote new printing and online technologies that permit the mass customization of the contents of a newspaper, a magazine, a broadcast program, or a Web site so that the contents match each individual user's own unique mix of interests, unlike the Mass Media practice of producing the same contents for each and every reader, viewer, listener, or online user.."

INC 3

2008-09-17T07:40:00.000-07:00

The dates for the next Individuated Newspaper Conference (number 3) are set for June 24-26 at The Washington Times in Washington, D.C. Visit www.individuatednews.com.

Getting started

2006-11-26T12:24:00.000-08:00

It's easy.
Simply go to http://www.mydailyonline.com and sign up.
That will generate before your very eyes a personalized MyDailyOnline site. Please note the URL across the top, because that is your URL to visit and change over and over again.
(Go ahead visit mine: http://www.mydailyonline.com/pvandevanter -- and you will see that a four-column page has been generated using 13 RSS feeds.)
If you look top right on your (or my) page you will see an "edit feeds" button.
Click that and 13 windows appear with RSS feed addresses embedded.
By changing out any of those RSS feeds and hitting the "submit" button, the four-column page is automatically changed to reflect the new feed.
That's how you slowly build your own crude, four-column,online newspaper -- but you get the idea of how we will eventually paginate a newspaper with only content someone has requested.

Proposed personal newspaper conference

2006-11-26T12:01:00.000-08:00

Several professionals are trying to put together the first global "Conference on the Personal Newspaper" in spring of 2oo7.
Myself -- a media executive -- in the U.S. ; Gregor Dorsch -- a marketing expert-- and Christian Bayerlein -- a printer -- in Germany; Stephan Jung -- a software expert -- at MIT.
Others are joining us all the time. If you want to attend, or just keep up with the email exchanges you can contact me at admin@petervandevanter.com.
We expect a two-day conference with presentations on progress across the seven challenges itemized in an earlier posting on this blog.
We are hoping to have the conference in one of the key towns associated with Gutenburg, i.e. Mainz or Leipzig, in order to have some historic alignment.

Personalizing music

2006-11-26T11:41:00.000-08:00

Let's look at the history of another medium in the last decade: music.
Used to be people bought prepared discs of music called albums and 45s.
Today people download music from the internet and create their own albums, or CDs.
The medium has been personalized.
Too often there is so much noise about distribution changes, and marketing changes, and pricing changes -- that the obvious is overlooked. People now choose their mix of music, instead of buying it canned.
Now the canned goods are still available, but the driving force -- the phenomenon -- in particular, the I-pod, is all about personalization.
Why can't we do the same for newspapers: peresonalization?

Direct mail bonanza

2006-11-25T20:20:00.000-08:00

Where will the new money for the personal newspaper come from? How will the personal newspaper grow new advertising revenue?
By one-upping direct mail.
The personal newspaper is better than direct mail.
The personal newspaper is invited into the house and knows for sure the interests of the subscriber, so advertising can be dependably targeted. (Direct mail is NOT invited into the house and can only guess the interests of the receiver, based on demographics.)
And there is a lot of money spent on direct mail -- in fact, more than is spent on newspapers.
In 2006, $59.6 billion was spent on direct mail, whereas $48.1 billion was spent on newspaper advertising (source: The New York Times, "Junk Mail is Alive and Growing", November, 2006).

The art of newspapers

2006-11-25T20:01:00.000-08:00

A reporter asked me if print is dead.
No, I said.
The analogy I made is to visual art in the 19th Century -- in particular painting -- under siege by photography as a process that was clearly going to be a more effective means of rendering images of visual reality.
As a result visual art begun to give people images of mental reality, emotional reality and onotological reality. Visual art went higher up the aesthetic ladder, and became more valuable.
So the newspaper is losing the battle for reporting what's happening in the world in the most timely fashion to radio, tv and the internet.
As a result the newspaper -- with the evolution of the personal newspaper -- will begin to present a reader's mental reality, emotional reality and ontological reality.
Newspapers will move farther up the aesthetic ladder, and in the process become more valuable.

Artifical intelligence is key

2006-11-24T04:39:00.000-08:00

Of the seven challenges facing the personal newspaper, the "perfect questionnaire" may be the key.
I try to follow advancements in artificial intelligence because the success of the perfect questionnaire, an opinion questionnaire, depends on its synchronicity with RSS feeds (or whatever replaces RSS feeds).
Currently we have a very crude system. At http://kpcnewventures.com/questions, we've devised a series of questions whose answers are directly tied to 13 RSS feeds.
That's the jist of the program.
A client answers the questions and our software program generates a personal newspaper by choosing 13 RSS feeds.
That's the extent of our artificial intelligence.

Imagine, Thanksgiving 2006

2006-11-22T19:40:00.000-08:00

Imagine a newspaper with stories just for you.
It's easy if you try.
Imagine there's no worldview.
No hell below us. Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people
Choosing their ideas.
Imagine no official reports.
It isn't hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for.
Imagine all the people
Learning more about themselves'
Imagine all the people
Sharing themselves
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one.
I hope some day you'll join us.
And the world will live as one to one.

The seven challenges facing the personal newspaper

2006-11-19T18:21:00.000-08:00

The personal newspaper is within reach. The final steps:
1. Write the perfect questionnaire. A way to discover an individual's personal media interests. (Go to http://www.kpcnewventures.com/questions.)
2. Devise a software program to connect answers with appropriate feeds. RSS feeds that answer the perfect questionnaire. A means of connecting the answers to the opinion questions with appropriate, compelling, uptodate exciting RSS-fed stories. (The web is doing the work.)
3. Create a concise pagination program. Probably proprietory program that creates a beautiful newspaper page from the RSS-fed stories. (Yes, Virginia, we have beta.)
4. Find a bold investor. A media company willing to take go for the "killer ap". (Plenty would qualify.)
5. Invent a new printer. A high-speed digital printing press capable of running at least 5,000 copies an hour of one-off newspapers. (Kodak Versamark is getting close.)
6. Craft a one-to-one advertising campaign. Monetize this product. (A cynch -- one-to-one marketing.)
7. Build a new labor force. A delivery team that can get the newspaper into the right person's hands. (Quite possible, even according to jaded distribution experts.)