On-Demand Printing of Magazines and Newspapers

Could the new Meganews Magazines autonomous newstands save the print industry? According to a recent post on http://www.gizmodo.com.au, these kiosks will help reduce the wasted paper from unsold magazines because the over-sized vending machine only prints publications when they’re ordered, in just two minutes. The Meganews Magazines kiosk takes up less space than a magazine store, so it can be installed and operated in places where retail space doesn’t already exist. In addition, it ensures that not a single magazine sold is folded, crumpled, or mangled. The first machine has been installed in Stockholm, Sweden.

The kiosk has access to a remote server where publishers upload the latest editions of their periodicals, and using a touchscreen interface, customers can browse more than 200 different magazines, newspapers, or journals. When they come across an issue they want to buy, a simple credit card transaction results in a high-quality, freshly printed copy, courtesy of a high-speed Ricoh printer on the inside.

According to Photizo, while the Meganews Magazines kiosk certainly addresses the serious issue of wasted paper and the costs associated with unsold publications, it does not help magazine publishers with their larger issue–declining hard copy readership. This new autonomous newsstand takes the traditional publishing model to a new place (literally), but the bigger question is how long the traditional publishing model will be viable. Consumer behavior is clearly shifting to online digital publications, including magazines, so  on-demand printing with the convenience and cost of an automated publishing kiosk may soon be a thing of the past.

The data from Recycling Times Media Corporation shows many people in the industry still need the hard copy magazine. So it has to increase the hard copy print run to meet the increased demand. The English monthly version of Recycling Times magazine has boasted 22%. Most of the new readers are from North America, Europe, Australia and Africa.