NEWSPAPERS EXPLORE NEW ON-SCREEN REPLICA POSSIBLITIES

New York—Beyond creating and distributing versatile on-screen replicas of daily print editions, technology suppliers and newspapers are exploring the possibilities of broadening the replicas' capabilities and exploiting the digital content for use on the Web and for presentation on platforms other than desktop or laptop PCs.

Electronic replica editions already are available with text translation, text-to-voice conversion for download to MP3 players, various methods of tracking and recording how and how much they are used, links to archives, multimedia and e-mail, and automatic Web site updating (See "Paperless Originals," June E&P).

Long involved in remote subscription and on-demand printing of newspapers, and more recently developing reader tracking for electronic editions, NewspaperDirect last month let the readers in on the act of deciding what's most interesting.

The latest version of PressDisplay.com, its aggregated newspaper platform, continues to display newspaper replicas online. But it now also now ranks newspapers, articles, and writers by the amount of time spent reading on them.

"If readers consistently spend more time reading an article, we consider this to be a quality story and assign a higher 'rank' to this article," CEO Alexander Kroogman says. "PressDisplay.com then adjusts the presentation of aggregated news in real time, giving higher priority to the most-read stories."

Kroogman argues that this is better than a traditional online aggregation system's ranking according to how intensely media are covering a news source or story.

There's a comparison with the printed paper, Kroogman says: "In essence it's like your friend passing you a newspaper, pointing to an article, and saying, 'Read this. It's interesting.'"

NewspaperDirect also announced last month a technology relationship with Microsoft that will enable its publisher partners "to reach the emerging mass market of typically young and technology-savvy subscribers who wish to read news and access content while on the move."

NewspaperDirect is working with Microsoft in what was earlier known as the Origami project to put content onto new, Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs).

NewspaperDirect's PressReader software allows readers to download and store, on a UMPC, issues from among NewspaperDirect's list of publisher partners. The material may then be read on their mobile devices, with or without an Internet connection.

UMPCs operate on a full version of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition software, are lightweight, and use a seven-inch screen.

Otto Berkes, general manager of Microsoft's Ultra-Mobile PC group, called NewspaperDirect's PressReader for UMPCs "a natural fit for people with a mobile lifestyle who want their news on the go."

NewspaperDirect's Kroogman called the relationship "a highly complimentary alliance."

At Nexpo, in late March, several suppliers of electronic replication solutions discussed possible platforms for future application of their technology. Three, Canada's NewspaperDirect, Switzerland's Tecnavia, and Germany's alfa Media Partner, said they are at work on delivering suitably formatted content to handheld devices.

Jens Emmerich, alfa Media Partner product manager responsible for all online products, told E&P to expect a "very, very reduced presentation for PDAs and cell phones," initially, at least, with neither photos nor ads — "just the plain text of the stories."

At almost the same time, Belgian financial newspaper De Tijd began testing a monochrome version of iLiad, an electronic-ink reader manufactured by iRex Technologies, a spinoff of Royal Philips Electronics. The reader uses technology, invented at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and developed by E-Ink, Cambridge, Mass., in which a paperlike substrate is empregnated with microcapsules containing white pigment nanoparticles suspended in dark dye. The particles respond to electrical charges supplied by a signal carrying page image data. The resulting high-contrast, highly reflective image remains until new signal data are supplied (E&P, Aug. 7, Dec. 4, 2000).

Also with an E-Ink display is the half-inch-thick Sony Reader, expected to released soon for between $300 to $400 and capable of downloading and displaying books, periodicals, and Web content.

Another technology, invented by Xerox and developed by its Gyricon subsidiary, employs tiny bicolored spheres, the orientation of which is determined by the polarity of an applied charge. Effective Dec. 31, however, Xerox closed Gyricon and said it will "refocus its efforts in electronic paper technology through licensing of the underlying intellectual property."

Not only can these display technologies be embedded in or printed on the substrate, but recent advances may allow antennas and perhaps entire circuits to be printed on paper or other lightweight and flexible materials. The technologies, in combination with a thin stick-on battery, may permit the substrate iteself to become the "device" — able not only to power itself, but also to receive new content and update its display by wire or wireless connection.

In this area of display research, which could allow the printer of content also to be the manufacturer of the device, the most recent challenger to E-Ink's technology is the invention of another scientist out of MIT. Quantum Paper, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., announced its first production quantities of "electronic paper" earlier this year.

"We're only looking to license 34 printers in the U.S. over the next three years, and only 10 over the next year," says Quantum Paper President and CEO Michael J. Feldman. Quantum's technology uses standard lithographic presses to apply "various types of inks and coatings to build a "15-layer device" on a variety of substrates, including newsprint, creating the same sorts of lightweight, bendable printed products foreseen by E-Ink and Gyricon.

Quantum's display, however, is transmissive rather than reflective. "We're using conductive inks to make the electrical circuit," says Feldman. An entire sheet or elements thereof may then be illuminated to produce either alphanumeric displays or color pictures utilizing prepress separations.

While applications such as in-store signage would rely on AC power, Feldman says battery-powered samples have been show. Quantum can print batteries along with the rest of the components — a technology Feldman says is three or four years old. "We will be integrating printed batteries into the display by the end of the year," he says.

Integration of a battery into a static display makes practical certain publishing applications, such as high-end advertising inserts. Feldman says to look for this in late 2007 or early 2008. Already, however, a low-resolution monochrome version has been demonstrated.

But beyond that is the dynamic display — "basically television on a piece of paper," Feldman says, adding that a prototype will be ready this summer. By wire or wireless connection, dynamic display could allow a newspaper to be updated throughout the day. At this point, updates are possible using a series of 17-segment displays (16 to produce alphanumeric characters, the seventeenth for a decimal).

Feldman says he wants the technology to advance further before the company talks to non-technical people about applications for publishing. Still, he adds that "we expect to start those discussions in early fall."

The fully addressable, dynamic color displays could replace, at lower cost, conventional phone and PDA screens, computer monitors, interactive billboards, electronic wallpaper and high-definition televisions, according to the company.

Though its display performance "meets or exceeds that of competing technologies," principal inventor and Quantum Paper Chief Technology Officer William J. Ray said in a statement, electronic paper can be made at "such a low cost as to be considered disposable."

The company says its Quantum Paper has resolution equal to HDTV, supports animations, can be scaled to billboard size, consumes little power and has a long lifespan, offers a wide viewing angle, and is environmentally and electrically safe.

Meanwhile, when it comes to prototypes of published products, De Tijd's three-month test involves a limited number of selected readers, who are given the iRex device. Financial Times sister paper Les Echos, in Paris has "electronic-paper" trials under way, and it was earlier reported that The New York Times Co.'s International Herald Tribune may sell subscriptions later this year for editions that rely on the iLiad reader.

In fall of 2003, the Los Angeles Times showed a prototype edition designed for the just-introduced tablet PCs and the corresponding version of Microsoft Windows. It relied on the "Kent format" devised by former Knight Ridder manager Roger Fidler at Kent State University's Institute for Cyberinformation (E&P, Dec. 16, 2002).

Fast forward to late last month, when, at the American Society of Newspaper Editors conference in Seattle, New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Microsoft CEO Bill Gates showed a prototype of Times Reader software, created to download the latest editions, display content to fit a given device's format, allow readers to customize presentation, annotate content, and "clip" stories they wish to save, and store search the last seven issues.