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Sci Tech
Publishing's next wave: digital news-stand
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Electronic dissemination of print media has moved beyond ``online editions.'' An emerging niche is digital delivery of true copies of printed versions, via satellite or Internet-linked kiosks.
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THE TERRORIST attacks on the US of September 11, saw the Internet succeed _ but barely _ in satisfying the global hunger for instant news from the scenes of action. Web editions of both New York based newspapers, the broadsheet, ``New York Times'' and the tabloid 'New York Post``, as well as television news sources like CNN, ABC and CNBC, saw a hundred-fold increase in hits, which they managed to handle by drastically paring down their more pixel-hungry content.
In the process they left a void that took them by surprise: thousands of Net surfers wanted to know: ''How did 'The New York Times' look like on September 11?`` or ''How can I see the famous 'Post' front page dedicated to the New York Fire fighters?`` The 'Times'' decided after a few days, to answer this curiosity: it placed at its regular website (www. nyt.com), high resolution scans of the front pages of the city edition in the days following the initial attack on the World Trade Centre. And last week, it decided cannily that the crisis had unveiled a new commercial niche in publishing: Today the website offers the usual ration of news from the print editions; but at a price that has not yet been determined, it will shortly offer, exact replicas of the print edition, which customers any where in the world can download _ provided they have access to a high speed broadband connection.
The hunger for the newspaper from one's hometown at a time of crisis _ or even just to stave of that wave of homesickness _ has been understood for about a year now: there are at present three organisations offering a global service whereby the local newspapers from dozens of countries will be available everyday, and almost everywhere, simultaneously with the original print release. At prices ranging from US $2 - $ 5 (Rs 90 - Rs 500). All three operators, offer page to page identical copies, slightly reduced to the A 3 size (420 mm by 297 mm), and printed in monochrome. Their mode of operation varies slightly:
The Vancouver (Canada)-based NewspaperDirect (www.newspaperdirect.com) , has a repertoire of around 90 internationally known newspapers ( the only Indian title is ``The Times of India'') which it uploads over Internet to some 100 locations worldwide _five star hotels, cruise ships, airport lounges _ where a local franchisee prints out the paper on a laser printer and provides it to the customer. On a recent visit to Singapore, this correspondent was furnished with that morning's full editions of ``Le Monde'', ``Washington Post'', ``The (London) ''Times`` etc, at a workshop organised by Hewlett Packard, whose ''workgroup`` Laserjet printers are used by Newspaperdirect's partners.
*From the Netherlands, PEPC Worldwide (www.pepcnews.com) , an agency backed by IBM, uses a kiosk technique. Its list of about 55 papers, are sent by satellite, to hundreds of ''PressPoint`` kiosks, where a customer can operate a coin-operated touch screen and buy the newspaper of choice, which is printed out instantaneously. PEPC ( which stands for Publisher's Electronic Printing Concept) began operations in January this year and has since acquired the pioneer company in this niche, PressPoint.
The third player in the digital newspaper business is the Austin (Texas, US) - based NewsStand Inc (www.newsstand.com) which is supported by the New York Times.
It delivers its papers directly to the customer via Internet and charges between $ 2.80 and $ 4) depending on the number of pages. Buyers can view the pages on their monitors and print out only what they need.
A broadsheet newspaper page in colour occupies 100 KB of space in 640 x 480 pixels format and 250 KB in 1024x 768 format. So this will work l only with a leased line, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or Cable-backed Internet connection which offers fast downloads.
The main attraction in this new distribution niche is that there is hardly any cost to the original print edition publisher, who also receives a royalty for every copy electronically sold from the distributor.
In addition _ and this is the icing on the cake_ since a physical copy has been printed and paid for, each copy sold thus, counts towards audited circulation. This is surely the next commercial wave of periodical publishing.
A 'desi' initiative
If daily newspapers are finding buyers for the digitally printed facsimiles, can the periodical press be far behind? Not according to Mr J Vishwanathan, a chartered accountant, formerly Head of Direct Investment, with the global investment bank Jardine Fleming (now JP Morgan-Chase).
Just over 2 years ago, Vish teamed up with two American partners, Dan Schwartz and Richard Seet, to start Qiosk.com _ which last year began its Qmags service, what it calls, `The world's first digital newsstand' (Indian operation: www.intl.qmags.com; US operation: www.qmags.com) .
The site offers what it says is the first ever Internet-based subscription service for exact digitally colour-printed copies of a range of magazines that includes Scientific American, Popular Mechanics, Business Week and Sports Illustrated.
Its Indian list includes, magazines from the Outlook group (Outlook, Intelligent Investor), Magna Publications (Stardust, Savvy, Society etc), Chitralekha (Gujarathi and Marathi) The India Today group has also come onboard. Currently the titles have to be bought in US dollars, but Qmags planning to extend its operation to rupees.
A variant of the PDF document format is used to deliver the magazine. But even more usefully, one can buy just on issue _ or even one article in an issue. If you were an NRI in the US, you could today `buy' exactly the same content as the Diwali special issue of Chitralekha for $ 1.50 or the latest edition of `Stardust' for $ 4. You have to download and make your copy using the best printer colour or monochrome, you have.
Since these prices compare well with the airmailed copies that may or may not be available where ever in the world, you live, the digital newsstand, is beginning to look like another of those 'desi' ideas whose time has come. And what of the future? Publishers are already exploring other innovative means of reaching more readers: The Akron (Ohio, US) daily, `Beacon Journal', will come out in a digital version online, but it is now selling a CD version, costing just 25 cents (Rs 12).
This contains the full text of the daily print edition _ plus lots of pictures and stories. An Israeli company, Olive Software, is offering its proprietary `ActivePaper' software which will enable any newspaper to set up a digitally transmitted and Internet- distributed hard copy edition.
Even more exotic, is the current work on `e-paper', developed by the MIT Media Labs in Boston, where a plastic-like sheet of paper can be used to download daily newspapers, from the Web, then can be erased and reused the next day.
The special paper is coated with `e-ink', a compound containing titanium dioxide, which retains black and white images, depending on the digital signals that it receives.
Unbelievable? So is the feeling, you can already experience, of sitting in a hotel lobby a continent away from your homeland _ and seeing your favourite local newspaper or magazine, come inching out of that printer. Did someone say, 'mera desh mahaan''?
Anand Parthasarathy
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