December 29 |
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A Digital Newspaper Tailored To Travellers
Source: Toronto Star
Editions beamed to far-flung areas, printed locally B.C. company is at the forefront of new approach
When Toronto real estate agent Mark Cheatley and his family were on a Caribbean cruise, he was happy for the chance to get away from it all. Several days into the trip, he wondered what news he was missing in Canada. So he ordered a copy of his favourite hometown paper and it arrived with his breakfast the next morning.
The $3.95 newspaper wasn't your typical newsprint version, nor did he read it on a computer screen. Printed on two sides of 11- by 17-inch white paper, the edition was ordered on the Internet, received by satellite and printed right on the ship.
This is how digitally transmitted newspapers, which ride the Internet instead of airplanes to locations around the world, arrive faster and for a fraction of the cost of traditional printed versions shipped to international destinations.
One distribution company, NewspaperDirect, based in Richmond, B.C., lets newspapers follow readers wherever they travel, work or live, moving digitally through the Internet and being printed on demand anywhere, any time, says Richard Miller, vice-president of sales and marketing.
It costs between $3 and $5.50, depending on the number of pages, and where it is ordered. The newspapers are automatically stapled on the top right or left, depending on the language they are printed in, to allow for easier reading, Miller says.
Titles offered by NewspaperDirect include the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times, Shanghai Daily, Mainichi Shimbun and the Times of India. Canadian papers include the Toronto Star and the Vancouver Sun.
NewspaperDirect distributes more than 185 newspaper titles in more than 70 countries and in 27 languages worldwide.
Another company, Satellite Newspapers, offers newspapers through automated selfservice vending machines it calls kiosks. Consumers go directly to any of the 126 kiosks worldwide to order newspapers, keying in request and payment information,and receiving the printed product directly from the kiosk.
The process takes about five minutes, from start to finish, including printing time, says Karina Tettero, a publisher relations manager for Satellite Newspapers. Costs range from $3.50 to $5 (U.S.) depending on the number of pages, to a maximum of 48 pages. Kiosk locations include resorts, hotels, conferences centres, airports and hospitals.
Satellite Newspapers, formerly PEPC Worldwide and NewspaperDirect's main competitor, is based in The Hague, Netherlands. Its kiosks distribute same-day editions of 131 newspapers from 54 countries, including the International Herald Tribune, USA Today, Germany's Die Welt and France's Le Monde.
NewspaperDirect services are ordered but printed by a third party, such as a hotel concierge, and delivered to the end user. Satellite Newspapers uses proprietary software and a private satellite network to distribute newspaper copy to its kiosks. Payment is via credit card as well as the company's own kiosk payment cards.
In the fall, the Toronto Star inked a deal with NewspaperDirect and Satellite Newspapers, choosing both distributors because they offer different locations and a broader reach, says Kevin Brewin, the Star's circulation marketing manager. The Star is providing 40 pages, the "core essence" of the paper, says Brewin. "These initiatives are part of our strategy to investigate innovative alternative distribution methods to meet our readers' needs."
Digital newspapers distributed this way are finding their niche, says Tettero. "It gives people the option to take the paper along without the hassle of finding the right wiring and connecting a laptop. That way the paper can be read on the train or airplane."
"It's the long-term potential of digital newspapers that we want to be part of," says Brewin. It's a cost-effective and efficient way to make the papers accessible to travellers, he say, but "the challenge is letting travellers know at what destinations they can find kiosks and outlets where the paper is printed."
Publishers associated with NewspaperDirect send portable data format (PDF) files to the company's B.C. office at up to 45 megabytes in size. The files are compressed into a proprietary format and made available for download over the Internet to hotels, cruise ships, airline lounges and a host of international locations.
What ends up in print depends on what the publishers send, Miller says. Ninety-five per cent send entire newspapers (including ads and classifieds), some send international or national versions, and a few even provide special digital versions. Some of the larger U.S. dailies can be 60 pages long when printed.
NewspaperDirect was founded in 1999 and has grown to a staff of 32. Thirty staff are based in Richmond, where network operation, sales and accounting are handled. There's an office in New York City to handle publisher relations and a sales office in London.
The idea for NewspaperDirect came when its founders realized the challenge of getting hometown newspapers to people around the world. In the past, the only way a newspaper could be distributed was to fly copies to remote locations, a costly and unpredictable exercise. So it made sense to print the newspaper at the point of consumption, Miller says.
"Revenue in the fiscal year ended March 31 (2003) grew 380 per cent from the previous year and will hopefully double again this year. We distribute about 100,000 newspapers per month, with an eight to 12 per cent growth monthly." For the past two years, privately owned NewspaperDirect has concentrated on international sales, niche segments - expatriates, foreign business travellers and corporations that want their staff informed about international news - versus mass circulation, Miller says. "The farther from North America, the more interested people are."
Licence partners are now operating in a variety of areas, including Germany, Hong Kong, Mexico, the United States and the United Kingdom. NewspaperDirect is currently looking at Quebec and the Atlantic provinces as additional markets. Licensees distribute the paper within various (usually geographic) territories. Licences cost anywhere from $10,000 to "in the six figures," depending on the size and opportunity provided by territory, Miller says.
"We sign exclusive licensing agreements, which provide the local company with the rights to print and distribute newspapers in their territory. For example, we have an agreement with a company in Chile to be our local licence partner. These agreements are typically two years plus renewal. The partner pays NewspaperDirect an upfront fee and then a royalty for each newspaper printed and sold." The publishers get a small royalty for each paper sold, says Miller. "The amount is confidential."
NewspaperDirect currently has about 40 licensees, plus a company that handles sales and marketing for the service aboard cruise ships. More than 300 hospitality properties worldwide provide their guests with NewspaperDirect service, including InterContinental Hotel & Resorts, Radisson SAS, Ritz-Carlton and the Hilton. One licensee in Thailand, who has been in operation just over one year, set up a printer in Bangkok as a central printing area, delivering newspapers to hotels as well as distributing to retail locations. In Germany, about 15 hotels have on-site printing and do local distribution.
Hotel chains are getting on board, providing the paper as another service and amenity. Global deals include the InterContinental Hotel chain, which offers the service as a standard amenity for its business travellers, Miller says.
NewspaperDirect is available on a number of private planes, although not on commercial passenger planes, and currently on 20 cruise ships, including Norwegian Cruise Lines. It's also been a mainstay aboard the posh floating condominium project, Residensea, allowing residents to have daily newspaper delivery to their door as they cruise the world.
NewspaperDirect offers a distribution channel that cuts the airplane out of the equation, Miller says. It provides publishers with a way to increase circulation and receive additional royalties. It also offers a way for publishers to log on to a secure Web site to track their circulation.
"NewspaperDirect readership is estimated to be about 1.3 to 1.5 times circulation, since these papers are often shared in a corporate enviornment," says Miller, "so the readership is about 130,000 to 150,000."
Satellite Newspapers has expanded its service to offer Client, which like NewspaperDirect allows third parties to download newspapers, print them out and distribute them directly.
NewspaperDirect has also expanded its services. Pressdisplay.com offers global access to online replicas directly on a computer screen, says Miller. "We want to reach people in a number of ways. There's a chunk of the population that is used to seeing newspapers on screen. The demographic (under 30 or 35 years of age) supports the service."
Monthly subscriptions start at $9.95 (U.S.) and provide access to all of the newspaper titles participating with NewspaperDirect, with a limit of 40 copies per month, Miller says. NewsStand, an e-commerce company that provides exact digital copies to desktop or laptop computers around the world, competes with NewspaperDirect online, but not in print, Miller says. NewsStand users subscribe to a particular title.
NewsStand, headquartered in Austin, Texas, distributes 48 publications in more than 100 countries. Newspapers are distributed by single copy and to subscribers, the company's Web site says.
Connie Adair
Special to the Star
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