Sunday, February 21, 2010

Newspapers on Demand

Travellers at Frankfurt airport can now access the same day editions of some 1,000 newspapers in 38 languages and walk away with their own printed copy from the store. The Print-on-Demand service was introduced this week at HDS Retail Deutschland’s Virgin Media Store in the Shopping Plaza in Terminal 2. In addition the airport operator's VIP service will also offer the service to international guests.

This obviously is a plus for travellers wanting their local news as they travel but it begs the question why not a digital copy download to a USB stick, mobile or laptop? If the POD machine has access to the content it would be a logical step to offer these download options. Such a service could then be widely deployed using the POD and download hub in major airports and stations and the download only in smaller ones.

Today we have access to literally hundreds of major news and newspaper services via apps on our mobile. Although we experience immediate access, we are often restricted abroad due to internet mobile roaming constraints. However, as wi-fi becomes more ubiquitous and publicly available for free, then the logic of buying a POD machine and the set up starts to look more questionable.

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