Home printing: Are we there yet?

Posted by Emily Dilling on August 5, 2009 at 2:20 PM

Since the fax machine was invented by Scottish inventor and mechanic Alexander Bain in 1843, publishers have been interested in the possibility of alternative forms of delivering their newspapers. Nearly 100 years after Bain received a British patent for his invention, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch conducted the first experiment with home printing. In 1939, it sent its paper to facsimile printers in readers' homes. Similar attempts were made in the 1940s, 50s and later in the 80s, as fax machines become more prevalent in homes and offices.

While experiments with home printing technology applications became mostly obsolete with the advent of the Internet, changes in newspaper printing and delivery is leading newspaper publishers to once again explore alternative methods of printing.

Currently, newspapers, especially in the United States, are looking at cutting printing and delivery costs, leading many to reexamine the number of editions they print and the areas to which they deliver.

The reduction of daily publications to three, or sometimes even two, days a week is a growing trend. While newspapers are struggling to rein in spending in the face of heavy debt or economic uncertainty, the costly business of printing and home delivery is susceptible to severe cutbacks. The effects of these cuts are seen in examples such as the San Francisco Chronicle eliminating more than 90 delivery truck drivers' jobs, news vendors in "hard to serve" areas in the United Kingdom fearing a cancellation of deliveries to their shops and several papers choosing to reduce daily printings to only the days that prove most interesting to advertisers.

Alexander Bain

The reduction in printing appears to be an obvious and easy way to save money. Mark Winkler, the executive vice president of sales and marketing for MediaNews Group confirmed this when he told the Denver Post that "our greatest expense is printing and delivering a newspaper" and said the effect of eliminating printing and delivery four days a week would be "significant."

MediaNews Group is on the forefront of the print-at-home technology, announcing in early March that it was developing a special home printer and planning on testing it at some of its California newspapers.

Meanwhile, the Detroit Media Partnership, which runs business operations for both the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, launched paid e-editions in March 2009. So far, the newspapers have been greeted with positive feedback and overall success in the first few months, with less cancellations of the print edition than expected and a steady stream of visitors to the online editions.

Rich Harshbarger, vice president of marketing/audience development at the Detroit Media Partnership, told SFN that just as at other newspapers around the globe, manufacturing and delivery expenses are among the highest fixed costs at the Detroit papers, which means "fluctuating prices for newsprint and fuel can add greatly to an operation's expense burden."

As a result, the Detroit papers are trying out reduced home delivery schedules, only delivering to homes three days a week, while daily news is available through the papers' e-editions. The e-editions represent not only an economic choice but, as Harshbarger explains, a means of adapting to the way people expect to get their news.

"The reality is, media habits around the globe have changed and continue to change." Harshbarger said, "What our new model does is provides information first - in the ways that people want and need it."

The expenses associated with printing and delivering papers also inspired the Memphis Commercial Appeal to reduce printing and delivery schedules and launch their own e-edition, the "e-appeal."

Karl Wurzbach, vice president of sales and marketing at the Commercial Appeal, told SFN his company was able to reduce newsprint and delivery expenses by 3.5 percent by reducing print and delivery days.

The Detroit papers and the Commercial Appeal's models have another thing in common: they both publish their online content in a printer-friendly PDF format, which Wurzbach says was chosen to provide a "middle tier" between print and online news.

Harshbarger admitted to having to work out some minor kinks with the PDF version in the beginning, but says that older, loyal customers who may have been put off by the reduction in home delivery days are enjoying the format of the online edition.

"We have found that many people are adopting new habits rather quickly and are adapting to this new reality," Harshbarger said. Adaptability seems to be a key word in the fluctuating future of the newspaper industry, which is obvious in Detroit Media's pledge to "look for opportunities and continue to innovate."

One thing seems to stay the same in the newspaper business and that is the commitment to quality over form of content, "We believe in printed papers seven days a week," Harshbarger said, "but we also believe in the delivery of hard-hitting and award-winning journalism in more ways that just ink on paper."

For more, check out SFN's latest report, The Power of Print.