The personalised newspaper is here

Wanja Oberhof, the founder of Niiu spoke today during the INMA Outlook 2010 conference in Liverpool, about his idea of creating the first personalised printed daily. The works are in a very advanced stage and the conference attendees actually had the chance to hold and look at this new invention.
When Niiu debuted in Germany in early 2009, it became one of the first personalised newspapers put together based on individualised content and source profiles. The personalised newspaper represents the young person’s lifestyle and information needs on a daily basis. It structures the daily information overload that young people are experiencing and pools together diverse sources of information in order to offer the best of newspapers,

the internet, and communities. Niiu is printed on classic newsprint and delivered at the home each morning.

Niuu has various sources, and various paths of information. The idea was inspired by social networks. But the real question was how to create a new business model – through information, creating special interests, and targetting the audience.

Niiu is combined from national and regional newspapers, from different sources. Wanja Oberhof believes that print is still the most comfortable medium, but at the same time he is thinking about ebooks, kindle and so on.

Wanja Oberhof has been working on this project for 2,5 years. The preparations included finding content providers and signing the agreements with them (which wasn’t easy), creating a software to combine this all together, and then classical in newspaper production cycle: printing and delivery.

Now Niiu cooperates with ca. 20 newspapers: regional, national, and international (like New York Times or International Herald Tribune).

Niiu is now being tested. The official start is set for 16th November. So far it receives great feedback, especially from the young target group. The next steps, as Wanja Oberhof said, will include finding other distribution channels, and building a variety of online pages.

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