Freshly printed newspapers from 70 countries thanks to "Print on Demand"
For about four weeks now, customers at the bookstore at Hamburg Central Station and at the airport have been able to have 700 newspapers from more than 70 countries printed out. The process is called «print on demand.».
For around four weeks now, the bookshop at Hamburg's main railway station and airport has been able to print out 700 newspapers from more than 70 countries around the world. The process is called "Print on Demand", as reported in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. Customers can browse the range on a computer screen and then order the desired print from a salesperson. Each newspaper is printed on beige-grey, relatively sturdy paper in A3 format. At the end, the desired newspaper is stapled together.
200 of the 700 titles are available in the computer's cache and can be delivered within a few minutes. However, if the buyer requests an unusual newspaper, printing can take up to 20 minutes. In this case, the data must first be downloaded from the editorial server. The same data is available that the editorial offices also send to their printers, which gives the New York Post, for example, a time advantage: If you print out a copy in Hamburg at nine o'clock, it's three o'clock in the morning on the East Coast and the newspaper is only just being delivered.
Valora Retail, which operates the bookshops at the main railway station and the airport, is satisfied with the results so far. According to Adrienne Schmidthals, press spokeswoman for Valora Retail, sales in both Hamburg branches are in the four-digit range. If the newspaper printing service continues to be well received, the company plans to expand the offer to other major cities in Germany.
200 of the 700 titles are available in the computer's cache and can be delivered within a few minutes. However, if the buyer requests an unusual newspaper, printing can take up to 20 minutes. In this case, the data must first be downloaded from the editorial server. The same data is available that the editorial offices also send to their printers, which gives the New York Post, for example, a time advantage: If you print out a copy in Hamburg at nine o'clock, it's three o'clock in the morning on the East Coast and the newspaper is only just being delivered.
Valora Retail, which operates the bookshops at the main railway station and the airport, is satisfied with the results so far. According to Adrienne Schmidthals, press spokeswoman for Valora Retail, sales in both Hamburg branches are in the four-digit range. If the newspaper printing service continues to be well received, the company plans to expand the offer to other major cities in Germany.
