Printcasting has been getting some great media attention lately, with positive stories in The New York Times, Business Week and The Miami Herald.
"A start-up in Colorado has a new twist on print publishing. It lets readers pick which articles they want in their magazine and then print it themselves. The company, Printcasting, has a Web site on which anyone can put together a magazine featuring their own blog posts or articles and items from blogs and newspapers that have registered with the site. Advertisers can place ads in the publications. Readers can print a copy of the magazine or view it online or on a mobile device."
"... The independent, family-owned Californian is preparing to take the idea of Web-created niche magazines national. Using an $837,000 grant from the Knight News Challenge and about $200,000 of its own money, it's launching a site called Printcasting.com later in March. The site will allow individuals, schools, homeowners' associations, wine clubs, and the like to create their own digital magazines. "If we see a magazine that really has potential, we'll print it, place additional ads in there, and distribute it, [first in Bakersfield, then in five other cities as early as this summer]," Pacheco says. The Californian will get a cut of ad sales while spending little on the product itself. "This is cheap and targeted," Pacheco explains. "Even though there's an ad recession, it doesn't mean there're no more ads."
In the January/February issue of MIT Technology Review, Printcasting appeared at the top of its prestigious "Research to Watch" list:
"Participata is testing a service that allows amateur publishers to create niche and local newsletters and magazines. Magazines are automatically generated from blogs and other online content chosen by the publisher; advertisements, typically from local retailers, are incorporated. Publishers can pay to have the magazine printed or offer it free online. Advertising revenues are shared by publishers, content creators, and Participata."
Read the full story.
The Miami Herald:
"One of the most radical News Challenge concepts, though, is Printcasting, which allows citizen journalists to create their own newspaper or magazine -- and to sell advertising to support it.
The idea, which won $837,000 from Knight last year, was developed by Dan Pacheco, senior manager of digital products for The Bakersfield Californian, an independent newspaper that has long experimented with citizen journalism, or reporting conducted by non-journalists ..."
and later ...
"Among newspapers vying to test Printcasting is The Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, said Editor Karen Magnuson.
''It has loads of potential,'' she said, ``and I think that a lot of what we need to be doing in our industry right now is innovating, innovating, innovating.''
Read the full story.