Newspaper Innovation

Foursquare, the social media application that lets you check in at various location and gives you mobile content in return, will from now on also contain information from Examiner.com, the web version of free daily The Examiner.

There are online versions of the Examiner in more than 200 markets in the US, this content (reviews, news, tips) will appear on phones of Foursquare users when in check in at locations with available Examiner content. (Mashable)

Spanish website 20minutos.es – operated by free daily 20 Minutos – will only allow registered users to post comments from December 31 on.

Reason is to get rid of abusive comments from anonymous users. There are now already 150,000 registered users for the website. (AEPG)

In 2009 Metro France introduced their first mobile application for the iPhone.

The new iPhone app let users chose from different categories: France, World, Sport, Tech, People, Weird (Insolite) and Culture.

It also allows users to add local information from different editions (Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris and Toulouse). (iGeneration)

Dutch free newspaper De Pers relaunched their web-app. The version now also works on computers as well on most tablets. The app is build in html5, meaning you’ll need to be online to view it. Click on the picture to get bigger version.

Wednesday November 24,  Thanksgiving Day, free New York newspaper amNewYork introduced an augmented reality option for users of smart phones (iPhones and Android).

With the junaio browser (free download on iTunes store and Android Market) users can make the pictures on the front page of amNewYork come alive.

According to the paper, “balloons will float from the pages of the paper”.

Free daily Metro UK has launched an iPhone/iPad app site of its own with more than a dozen paid and free apps.

Showpiece is the free Metro news app with a excellent look and feel, containing also a nice picture section. Not an upgraded iPhone app, but a real iPad version.

There are two paid (£0.59) games: Super Yum Yum and Bamboozle!; five lifestyle apps (property finder, jobs, motor, people), one of them paid; six paid travel apps (phrase books) and an upcoming Cab Finder app.

After going into the mobile phone business (see previous post), Swiss free daily 20 Minuten will also invite readers to listen to online music.

Through online-Music portal www.soundshack.ch “millions” of songs can be streamed to the user. Downloads are not yet possible. Costs are Chf 14.90 (€11) for one month, or Chf 79 (€58) for half a year. (Persoenlich)

The website metronews.ca is turned into an exploding website until November 4th. The Metro press release:

Visitors of metronews.ca are immediately redirected to a website that looks and feels exactly like the Metro home page. The content on the page is comprised of articles and advertising about family, children and safety. A few moments later, a “landmine” imbedded in the site explodes and a cloud of smoke coats the webpage. This explosion is enhanced with sound so users feel the full impact of the landmine. When the dust clears, the entire home page has been destroyed. Pictures of people and playgrounds appear ruined. The articles themselves have shifted and broken apart, and a call to action for donations appears in the crater.

The purpose of the media execution is to drive donations to the Walk Without Fear Foundation (created by Mines Action Canada) by generating awareness about the impact and effects that landmines continue to have around the world – Every hour someone falls victim to a landmine.

There’s only limited danger outside of Canada probably – as I did not see it happening. [correction - it did happen, I was not patient enough.]

Is it an app? Is in a pdf? Is it a website?

No, it’s a web-app.

The picture below shows my iPad, on on the iPad the digital version of Dutch free daily De Pers, not the website, and not the pdf you can download from the website.

De Pers developed an online HTML5 version that works like an app on all platforms (iPad, Android, Windows7).

Next month the web app should be fully operation, but today’s (well yesterday’s) paper, worked fine on the iPad. Arrows left and right take you to other pages (which can also be reached by the ‘pages’ option’), clicking on an article displays only that article and can be made bigger by the famous iPad index-thumb movement, one click takes you to the front page and another to the ‘real’ web version of the paper. There is also an archive of the paper.

The web-app can only be seen on tablets – going to www.i-pers.nl will take you there (more info on De Nieuwe Reporter).

Politic, the Washington-based website / free daily, will start a paid online service Politico Pro next year. The news service will focus on health care, energy and technology.

According to the New York Times, the service will cost subscribers $1,495 to $2,500 a year for the first topic and $1,000 for each subsequent topic.

The new online service will be targeted mostly at lobbyists and government officials. Politico will employ 50 people for the operation, 40 of them journalists.