However, in recent years, digital printers have come along and changed all of this and it is now possible to read today’s copy of The Guardian today, even though you may be on the other side of the world. In tandem with advances in digital print engines, the key to this sea change has been the networks that act as the middlemen between the newspaper publishers and printers.
One of the best-known suppliers of digitally printed newspapers is Océ’s Digital Newspaper Network (DNN).
The network, which has been running for about six years, currently has 15 titles, with affiliated print sites in London, Zurich, Singapore, Los Angeles and New York, churning out approximately 10,000 newspapers daily.
According to Océ’s UK programme manager for continuous printers Alan Sutcliffe, the company is the only one in the world that can print on newsprint digitally and he feels that this is key: “People distrust newspapers that do not feel like real newspapers. The Guardian is 60 pages of broadsheet; people don’t want to be reading A3 with staples through it.”
He adds that another benefit of digital newspaper networks is that thanks to micro-zoning, publishers can produce the same content but then create bespoke advertising for a different country, or even in theory, street.
Power of personalisation
This is something a number of DNN’s publishing partners are beginning to take advantage of. “Some publishers are now changing their admin system to handle micro-zoning,” explains Sutcliffe. “We have done a lot of education to enable it to work and some are making use of it now.”
One of DNN’s hubs is Stroma, based in west London. The company prints six titles for DNN – the Globe and Mail from Canada, Sydney Morning Herald, New York Times, NZZ from Switzerland, Vorsen Zietung from Germany and Vorsen Copenhagen from Denmark.
For Stroma’s managing director, Steve Brown, the system works best when the publisher can guarantee sales. “Many foreign publishers sell to subscription. If you go into retail, you face the element of unsold copies and this can wipe out your margin,” says Brown. “The subscription scenario is much more appealing. You just have to print what is needed and there is no need to take returns into account.”
But DNN is not the only option out there for newspaper publishers wishing to distribute their titles globally. Newspaper Direct takes PDFs from publishers and makes them available to its worldwide franchises, of which there are currently around 90. These local partners then pay the cost of printing and sell the newspapers on where they can find customers.
A franchise essentially buys an area and will then have exclusive rights for printing in that area. Currently, NewspaperDirect sells about 400,000 copies per month, although some of the more popular newspapers are selling nearly 1,000 a day.
According to David Owen, senior vice president in charge of publishing at NewspaperDirect, the advantage of this system is that there is no cost to publishers who are able to reach a market outside of their own.
Perhaps because of the free element, NewspaperDirect has a list of 500 newspapers and magazines for users to choose from. Predominant users of the service are hotels, education establishments, libraries, companies and embassies. However, individual users have also been known to use NewspaperDirect as well, particularly ex-pats.
Owen explains: “People want to keep in touch with home. An ex-pat living in New York may want the Daily Mirror delivered every day. Or someone on a business trip in Frankfurt for a few days may want The Guardian to read over breakfast every morning. They look on the website and find the local distributor then call or email them to find out a price. We have hotels that are signed up so often it can be arranged through them.”
Some of the hotels even have printing facilities on-site so they can produce the newspapers in-house. And in more extreme cases, NewspaperDirect has dealt with individuals who carry out the printing themselves.
“For the super-rich you can get a printer onto a yacht or on an island in the Caribbean,” says Owen. “We have had VIPs call up and say they have an island and they want a selection of newspapers every day. It’s a very easy process. We simply tell them what equipment to get and then all they need is the software to take the newspaper images.”
NewspaperDirect currently has all of the UK national newspapers among its range of titles, but it is also looking to take the provision of local news to the next level. It already offers major local newspapers such as the Evening Standard and the Newcastle Journal and this is an area that Owen wants to explore further.
“We want to develop the regional business. When people travel they are delighted to be able to get their own national newspaper, but if they can get their own local newspaper delivered they are irrationally happy,” says Owen.
Like the Océ network, the key advantage of Newspaper Direct is that, as a customer, you are able to get your news on the same day as if you were at home and, in some instances, even before the newspaper comes out at home.
The cost of the newspapers varies depending on where you are and what newspaper you want but, according to Owens, in Europe the average price is around €3.
“The price is compatible with what they would charge when the newspaper is flown out,” he explains . “In Greece, The Guardian is around €2.80; we charge €3. The difference is you are getting it first thing. But the price, whether flown out or printed, is always going to be more expensive than the domestic market.”
Printing costs
For Owen, one of the key issues at the moment is the cost of printing. Many NewspaperDirect franchises set up printers for very low cost, but they print on A3 paper on a cut-sheet format rather than newsprint.
“Most of our partners use A3 production printers that take sheetfed paper and in these machines, you can use various paper weights from 60 to 80gsm. We are hoping for a roll-fed solution that is digital and idea for short print runs – we want to make it look more like a newspaper. But it will take a big manufacturer to come along and offer offset.”
As reported in the pages of PrintWeek recently, there are new roll-fed digital printers hitting the market such as the Kodak Versamark. But the cost to install these types of machines is much more expensive than the type of equipment currently being used by NewspaperDirect’s printers.
“Our network makes a living on between 500 and 1,500 newspapers per day each,” says Owen. “The bigger roll-fed machines would need 5,000 copies per day or so and we have very few sites as productive as that. These machines can cost around $5.5m (£2.8m) with finishing, whereas our guys are up and running with multiple machines for $20,000.”
DNN believes its printers need to produce 2,000 copies to be “comfortable” cost wise. However, these printers can cover any shortfall because they rarely print just newspapers. “Printers are mixing in with other areas, so they may print newspapers from midnight until 5am but the rest of the day they are printing something completely different like direct mail,” says Sutcliffe.
Although digital presses currently pose no challenge to litho in terms of the way newspapers are printed, new doors are slowly opening up for newspapers to reach new markets – both in terms of their content and advertising - thanks to digital print. And for as long as people continue to travel and have the desire to keep in touch with the news from back home, this sector looks set to prosper.
CASE STUDY: NEWSPAPER KIOSK
Another provider of digital newspapers is Satellite Newspapers. The company actually sells kiosks, similar to a vending machine, where punters can pay for a newspaper of their choosing from a wide selection.
The Kiosks are just 143cm tall and digitally print out a copy of the newspaper on demand. A potential buyer simply walks up to the machine, makes his or her choice and can then pay by credit card
or a specially purchased kiosk card. Payment between the kiosk owner and Satellite Newspaper is then settled on a monthly basis. The kiosk is connected to Satellite Newspaper’s system either via the internet or satellite. It would be possible to place one of these kiosks in a newsagent. So cities that have a high number of visitors or foreign residents, such as London, could provide news from around the globe every morning.
