Pity the poor printer. Beset by the Internets, iPads, Smart Phones, Kindles, Pay Walls and all things electronic, but, HA, we still have you if you want to hold a real newspaper or magazine in your hand.
Or we do until Meganews hits the streets. The concept behind Meganews is based on people’s desire to have real newspapers or magazines in their hands and publishers desire to get it to them cheaply.
At the Meganews Kiosk you select the newspaper or magazine you want from a huge selection from all over the World, insert your credit card and this modern miracle prints, binds and spits out a complete magazine or newspaper in two minutes.
Web printers, “Abandon all hope!”
Frankly, I find it a very positive development for the world of print as Meganews must be spending an amount roughly equal to the GDP of Portugal to develop a way to get printed papers into people’s hands when everyone is going digital. Why is that?
I flew to the Right Coast a few years ago and distinctly remember I was the only one on four flights that didn’t need to switch off my book. Maybe it is just me as I don’t travel a lot, but it seems there is more printed stuff on airline flights now. Last few times I flew there were newspapers and magazines everywhere. Sure there were laptops and iPads, but the majority of people reading seemed to have paper in their hands. I like that.
My favorite quote about the future of printed papers is still from Bruce Brugmann, publisher of The Bay Guardian for fifty years, “There will be newspapers as long as there are bathrooms.” Even in the age of iPad, I agree, at least when it comes to the paper part.
