Printcasting to "democratise" print in more US cities through collaboration with newspaper publisher

Posted by Christie Silk on July 2, 2009 at 3:23 PM

The Printcasting model is on its way to "democratise" print publishing in more cities in the US, it was announced last week. The initiative, financed by the winnings of the 2008 Knight News Challenge, has made its first newspaper partnership with Denver-based MediaNews Group. The publishing group controls 54 daily newspapers in 11 states, including The Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News.

The project originated out of the newspaper, the Bakersfield Californian and first went public in March to cater for the town of Bakersfield, California.

Printcasting enables any would-be-publisher to create their own customised, special interest-focused publications. It works on an interesting hybrid of online and print: the software aggregates online- generated content, ranging from news organisations, bloggers and newsletters, from which aspiring publishers pick relevant pieces to create their own niche publication. The programme then guides the user in placing text, images and advertisements within a template. The finished project can then be sent by e-mail or printed and distributed by the creator. The financing model is unusual: 60% of the revenue generated by advertising is shared with the publishers, while the content contributors recieve 30% of all advertsing revenue on the network, in proportion to how much their content is used.

The partnership with publisher MediaNews Group suggests the potential of the model as a tool for local newspapers to obtain interesting content at lower costs. For the founder of the project, Dan Pacheco, the arrangement between the publisher and software is a logical development:

"'The most natural partners for local promotion are newspapers because they have local content, local people, and an interest in growing local audience and revenue. Printcasting offers a way for them to do that at lower cost while also leveraging content from bloggers in their communities. Local bloggers will also benefit through ad revenue share, assuming a newspaper chooses to use their content in one of their Printcasts, and that Printcast makes money."

Touching on what is a currently a real problem for local newspapers in the US, Pacheo maintains that the programme offers newspapers the opportunity "to work in partnership with local entrepreneurial-minded content providers rather than in competition with them".

In theory, the collaboration should be mutually beneficent, as all involved should hopefully be driven by similar concerns for community development and revenue generation. Printcast is an exciting innovation and if the partnership with newspapers succeeds, it will serve to highlight the prospects of online-print cooperation as future direction for local publications.

Sources: Printcasting press release
Poynter Online