Individuated News Conference Video

Peter Vandevanter just sent me this video summary of presentations and discussions at MediaNews Group's Individuated News conference, which I was fortunate to attend this year:



I think my favorite quote is from commercial printer Oce's Duncan Newton, who noted that the phone bill is the most personalized print product in existence today:

You guys [newspapers] are talking about individuation. Old hat -- we've been doing that for 20 or 30 years ... I can do this kind of stuff in my sleep. And you guys are saying, 'Oh my God, the sky is falling.' No it's not. We know how to do it ...

I remember him saying that, and that's when I stopped thinking that personalized print products, and mass printing and delivery of niche publications (like those we'll create with Printcasting), is something that may one day happen in the future.

Get that thought out of your mind. It's happening today -- but just not with news. Companies like Océ, HP and Kodak now have printers that are focused exclusively on news and magazines. Over the next few years, I think our perceptions of print are going to change drastically as we begin to see more and more personalized content showing up in our mailboxes, on street corners and even on our home printers.