Personal daily: brand Niiu day for the printed press

October 8, 2009 by marek.miller

An idea of a personalized newspaper should not sound new to anyone. How do most people get their news from the internet? Do they still browse the universe of webpages?
More and more users customize the web into their likings – they use multiple rss channels, subscribe to most interesting topics in google news alert and so on. But for many, there is still life in print. Newspapers are losing their ground with the descending circulation due to a lot of useless content they carry. But how can we define useless content? As many readers there is, as many ideas for an “ideal newspaper” they have. In that case, why not let readers decide, and give them a printed newspaper with the content they really demand? From the first to the last page. This is when individuated newspaper comes into play.

In a couple of days, a pioneer project in Europe is about to begin. Niiu, the personalised newspaper is based in Berlin, Germany, and represents the young person’s lifestyle and information needs on a daily basis. It structures the daily information overload that young people are experiencing and pools together diverse sources of information in order to offer the best of newspapers, the internet, and communities. Niiu will be printed on classic newsprint and delivered at the home each morning.

Wanja Oberhof, the founder of Niiu

Wanja Oberhof is the founder of Niiu. He is also one of the speakers on the upcoming INMA / OPA Outlook 2010 conference. Read what Wanja Oberhof told Forum4Editors about the project, and if you wish to listen to him live or be able to ask him few questions personally, make sure you register for the conference in Liverpool. Less than two weeks are left!

Forum4Editors: Please explain to our readers what the idea of personalised newspaper is all about?

Wanja Oberhof: Niiu – the first individualized newspaper will combine various print and online content regional, national and international newspapers plus the essence from the internet. Customers can select their specific individualized content through a web-based platform. This personalized mixture is digitally printed and delivered to you every morning.

How many and which newspapers cooperate with Niiu?

Different regional, national and international titels are participating but we will not reveal them until going live on October 13th.

The model of Niiu

Please describe in short how the production cycle of a personalised newspaper looks like. What are the deadlines for printing, distribution, etc.?

Every client has the possibility to configure his or her own newspaper until 2 pm every day. Our unique technology aggregates, personalizes and publishes the various content automatically. This data is send to our printing press online. The press prints the newspapers overnight. Finally it is delivered home to each reader until latest 8am every morning.

How popular is personalised newspaper so far? Would you call it a success after the first few months of existance? Is it the future of newspapers?

niiu is the first individualized newspaper so far. There is nothing comparable in the market at the moment. Due to our official start in a few weeks, we can say that the feedback is phenomenal! I could imagine that individualized newspapers are one trend in the future, but to my mind there will be more future scenarios for newspapers. I think there will be different services, bringing various content, on several ways (iphone, e-ink, paper, e-reader) to the clients.

An idea of a personalised newspaper sounds great, but on the other hand I am afraid what I would talk with my friends about. If everybody reads a personally tailored newspaper, how does one find common topics for conversations?

To my mind, there are no problems, because the topics are more or less the same like in a regular newspaper. niiu is more about a variety of titles you can choose from. And if your friends have the same interest like you, you can choose a similar combination as they do. Additionally you can suggest single newspaper pages, blogs or RSS Feeds to them. After all you have a larger field of interest to talk about.

Thank you very much.

And what do our readers think about the idea of personalized newspaper? Is it the future of print or rather postponing its death? Please let us know in the comments below.