Now, it seems, newspapers can be today’s paper hand towel thanks to a rather clever promo thought up by popular Mexican freesheet Máspormás.

The team at the paper, and its ad agency FCB Mexico, came up with the idea of creating adapted paper towel dispensers by inserting inkjet printers into the mechanism. 

The dispensers were those fancy ones that work via a sensor. They were linked to the paper’s real-time newsfeed via wi-fi, so that when activated they would print out a sheet containing the latest hot news from the Máspormás readership area, with a QR code linking back to its website. 

Hidden cameras capture the amazed reactions from people whose ordinary visit to the restroom had turned into a scene from Minority Report. 

You can see the video here: bit.ly/papertowelprinter.

The newspaper’s website traffic jumped 37% as a result. 

We haven’t heard back from Máspormás about the make of inkjet head or the type of ink used, but suffice to say the members of the public who engaged with the stunt did not end up with the sort of nasty black smudges on their fingers that can result from reading, err, newspapers.