Digital newspapers drag behind in Australia: PANPA Forum

Digital print suppliers urged by PANPA chief to stop with the offset comparisons and show how it can really make a change to newspapers.

In his frank presentation on digital presses, Mark Hollands, (pictured) CEO of PANPA, admitted that he is a fan of the idea of digital newspapers, but the concept still has far to go locally. In part, he believes this is because print suppliers are not exploring ways for the technology to work within the Australian market.

“Digital suppliers have an issue with engagement,” he said, referring to case studies of overseas publishers using digital printers to produce newspapers. “There’s not much point in talking about the overseas newspaper market when we don’t have the market here. There’s got to be a lot more work done from the supply side to make that relevant to you [Australia].”

This year, Océ produced a personalised newspaper, the Digital Daily, for PANPA.  “It wasn’t easy to do, but we wanted to produce a case study of possibilities,” Hollands said.

He admitted it was “obvious [that] the colours are flatter,” but also pointed out that guest speaker, News Limited CEO, John Hartigan, took his copy with him. “These things have resonance,” Hollands added.

Hollands also criticised the fact that the Digital Daily had to be printed from Océ’s Munich headquarters. “That’s pretty average and it’s not very green,” he said. “There’s an opportunity to lead the market.”

Pictured: Breaking the news, the Océ team (l-r) Colin McKenzie, business development manager, production printing; Herbert Kieleithner, national marketing manager, production printing and Robert Koeckeis, director business development, with the Digital Daily.

According to Herbert Kieleithner, national marketing manager, production printing, Océ-Australia inspiration for the paper came from Niiu, an individualised, personalised newspaper in Berlin created by a 23-year-old entrepenur. “Why did we create the Digital Daily? To inspire you and give you an idea of what is possible,” he said.

3,800 copies were printed on the Océ Jet Stream 2200 in less than an hour. For those who registered, their edition came complete with their own name and photo featured throughout the 16-page publication, which also contains a QR code to link readers to the latest news.

“The future publishing industry needs to offer one-to-one communication to its readers,” Kieleithner said. “You can extend your reach and capture people who would not normally read newspapers.”

Too often, digital is claimed to be a suitable substitute for offset, but Hollands believes that this is not the case, and the supply side should stop the comparisons.

“Digital print is not a replacement for offset: it can’t do what manroland, Goss and the others can do,” he said. “Talk about the possibilities, as opposed to trying to do the same – it won’t work. There is a cultural shift that needs to be addressed.”