May 23 |
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Identity, Security and Amenity
Source: International Herald Tribune
...A question to ask when you reserve a room at a hotel: Can you get a copy of your favorite newspaper on your breakfast tray? I'm talking about that same morning's edition of The Times of India when in Paris, El Pais in Delhi, Mainichi Shimbun in Tel Aviv, The New York Times in London, the South China Morning Post in Chicago or Al Hayat in Frankfurt.
Such legerdemain is achieved by digital-imaging technology that allows hotels, airlines, cruise ships and retail stores to download from a PC and print full-format newspapers in an 11 inch-by-17 inch configuration. Unlike the Web sites of newspapers and magazines, these are exact replicas of print versions.
NewspaperDirect Inc., a digital distribution company in Vancouver, British Columbia, sends out 170 titles worldwide to such hotel chains as Inter-Continental, Hilton, Sheraton, Radisson SAS and Ritz-Carlton and the Holland America and the Norwegian Cruise Lines. Hotels may charge guests about $2 a copy or offer the papers free. PEPC Worldwide in The Hague uses satellite delivery to download newspapers to kiosks. Customers select and pay for their favorite newspaper on a touch screen. Within two minutes, the latest edition, printed in tabloid format and fastened with carthree staples, rolls off the printer.
Qatar Airways in Doha is the first airline to offer first- and business-class passengers same-day copies of newspapers from NewspaperDirect's catalogue of more than 170 titles. Newspapers specific to the destination are printed out and distributed in the cabin with the usual papers. So, for example, a traveler heading to Paris will be able to read that morning's Le Figaro along with the International Herald Tribune or The New York Times. Singapore Airlines has started a pilot program with NewspaperDirect out of Vancouver airport...
Roger Collis
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