Brand niiu day for newspapers

Personalised newspaper expert spreads the word to Australia.

Robert Koeckeis (pictured) of Océ is the driving force behind what he claims to be the world’s first truly personalised newspaper, the Niiu project in Germany.

Currently, 30 newspapers are involved in the project, including the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Germany’s Bild and the Washington Times. The project was launched by a data management company, using their own software combined with Océ software.

The newspaper, called Niiu (translated as “new”), offers various segments taken from any of the newspapers in the coalition, which can be packaged as one unit, using pages selected from the newspapers’ websites. Newspapers involved receive royalties for the number of pages which are used.

According to Koeckeis, the newspaper has gone from 24 pages to 28 pages already, to accommodate interested advertisers.

Recently in Australia to speak to potential local customers for the Océ JetStream range, Koeckeis says the Niiu project is a promising model for the future of newspapers.

“To survive, newspapers will be looking at several different models, some on line, some involving print,” Koeckeis said. “The Niiu project is one of these and there is considerable interest from newspaper publishers around the world.”

Though the media landscape differs considerably in Australia, Koeckeis believes that such a project could be a success locally. He added that one of the strengths of the German experiment, which is confined at this stage to Berlin alone, is the German distribution network, which takes advantage of an existing home delivery system.

“The paper must be home-delivered, given that it’s personalised. In Australia you would need to streamline the existing home delivery system and, initially, perhaps confine it to small areas of a capital city, but there is no reason why it could not take off here,” he said.