The Newspaper Club allows users to print their own newspapers

Posted by Alexandra Jaffe on March 16, 2010 at 6:32 PM

Print media may not die if the printing press is put in the hands of the consumer. It's this idea that drives the Newspaper Club, a London-based startup that allows members to print small runs of their own newspapers at low cost.

The venture began when a group of friends decided to compile their friends' best blog posts and photos and print it as a newspaper titled Things Our Friends Have Written On The Internet. Because printing presses sit idle for most of the day, a small run of newspapers turned out to be remarkably cheap--about 364 euros for 300 copies. The small price led the friends to form a company and start marketing the printing option to others.

Now, the Newspaper Club is printing newspapers for weddings, sports events, and even newspapers of websites. Other companies, such as UK-based The Printed Blog, also allow clients to create printed versions of their personal weblogs. Editor-at-large at Wired magazine Ben Hammersley has been quoted as praising the paradoxical nature of blogs being printed in newspapers.

"This creates a new industry, almost from the ashes of the old one," he said.

The Newspaper Club developers plan to pitch their idea at this week's SXSW conference, hoping to spread homemade newspapers across the world. Soon whistle-blowing blogs could turn into publications as palpable and ubiquitous as the New York Times.

Source: BBC News