OJR: The Online Journalism Review

Mary Lou Fulton

Bakersfield, California

Mary Lou Fulton is Vice President of Audience Development at The Bakersfield Californian and a member of the advisory board of the Knight Digital Media Center.

Contact:

Articles:

These articles are the work of their author, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of nor an assignment by OJR.

The customized newspaper is right around the corner, if you're willing to go there

January 23, 2009
Mary Lou Fulton is Vice President of Audience Development at The Bakersfield Californian and a member of the advisory board of the Knight Digital Media Center.

Newspapers are "one size fits all" publications fighting to survive in a world gravitating toward personalized and niche media. But what if you could have the best of both worlds – the serendipity of browsing a newspaper combined with content and advertising that was tailored just for you?

This idea has been kicking around for years, but in Europe, the Swiss Post (that's the postal service, not a newspaper) and the German tech startup Syntops are making it happen with their Personal News project. This is a small experiment, but a fascinating one that offers a mashup of section fronts from select newspapers in Europe and the U.S. An overview of Personal News, a three-month pilot project that launched in December, was presented by Syntops CEO Gregor Dorsch at this month's conference on Individuated News. More...

10 Comments | Archive Link