With news media companies all over the world confronting falling print circulations and advertising volumes, it has taken a special kind of vision to embrace the opportunity offered by digital newspaper printing.

And as if making a case to top management for the short-run friendly technology wasn't hard enough, using it to send a personalised marketing message to readers sounds like diving in at the deep end. Yet that could be where the future lies, with a logic about it that defies the ongoing debate about consumables and cost-per-copy.

So far, the application of digital printing - usually web-fed inkjet technology - has been to print relatively small quantities of newspapers, typically remotely from their main production centre.

The first digital sites tended to be those printing international newspapers for premium travellers, and editions for expats at holiday destinations. Indeed, half the production of a new joint venture site which starts up in Jersey this year, will be to print UK dailies for Channel Islands residents. That the other half will be the 17,000 circulation of the local Jersey Evening Post is a measure of how far the technology has advanced in terms of speed and cost. And a tribute to the willingness of equipment vendor Kodak to invest - its contribution including two Prosper 6000C presses - in the KP Services (Jersey) joint venture.

Currently, HP-equipped Mengis Druck, the Swiss publisher of Walliser Bote - which has a circulation of 22,000-32,000 copies - is claimed to be the first to "continuously" print a daily newspaper digitally.

Imprimerie de l'Avesnois has just started printing Sogemedia's series of weekly newspapers and other work digitally (on another Prosper press) in northern France, and has plans to use variable data to personalise products.

Both these sites gain industrial-scale savings from the use of manroland's FoldLine finishing, although KP Services will use four of Hunkeler's Combi-Solution systems for product-related reasons.

So far, almost all digital newspaper printing worldwide has been undertaken by third parties, not by the publishers of the newspapers involved. Canon Océ was the original supporter of a global network of sites which print the international editions of newspapers found mostly in airport news-stands and - for the lucky few - on airlines' business and first class seats. Atlas Printing Press in Dubai (which happens to be another Screen user) is another specialist in this field, with airside access enabling it to deliver the latest print editions direct to flights departing the Emirates hub.

In Europe, Miller Newsprint businesses in Malta and Cyprus logically combine digital printing - mostly on Kodak presses - with distribution. In Spain, an earlier adopter was contract printer Imcodavila which produced six national daily newspapers and other titles on a Océ JetStream press.

Among publishers, perhaps furthest down the variable data newspaper line is Belgian church newsletter Kerk & Leven, where production of 340,000 copies weekly on two Canon Océ ColorStream inkjets is split into 508 editions.

Many believe that is where the digital print technology is best employed, somewhat removed from the harsh glare of 'cost-per-copy'.

Marc Selby, whose Gold Coast data company printed a pilot project for Australian regional publisher APN News & Media (see below), says savings over airfreighting offset-printed newspapers from a main production centre - rather than printing them digitally at destination - can be marginal, and is dismissive of "bizarre" ideas of printing national editions in remote centres such as Queensland mining town Mt Isa.

He says newspaper digital technology is "still a generation short of where it needs to be"... nor is he sure that it will it make that step.

While geographic issues in Australia make publishing and distribution, as Selby says, "more difficult than in any developed country in the world", digital print technology makes sense in centres of population, and in markets such as the mostly coastal fringe served by APN's ARM regional media division.

The division - which uses the slogan, "one local to another" - is engaged in print-based newspaper marketing under the Brand Extra banner which is as close to one-to-one as any.

The publisher of 12 daily and 62 non-daily newspapers reaching 1.8 million people in Queensland and northern NSW, it was the partner of choice in a multiplatform campaign which used personalised print to promote travel agent Flight Centre's expertise and launch a new megastore.

After a launch to agencies and major advertisers, it has so far been achieved without direct investment in either digital newspaper printing or variable data technology. While there's been talk of an inkjet web installation, first projects have been contracted out to specialists, among them Selby's Alphabet Publishing, which employs its Screen digital press mostly for data-driven personalised mailing.

For one-off projects such as that for Flight Centre (see below) and an earlier pilot tied to the Warwick Rodeo in APN's Daily News heartland, the logic is compelling and results for the advertisers involved have been outstanding.

With current focus on data and a background in advertising agency operations and production - with companies including Junior Advertising and Euro RSCG in Brisbane and McCann's in Sydney - in publishing with Federal Publishing and Hannanprint, and "as a kid at the Sunday Telegraph", Selby emphatically agrees.

But he says the digital print opportunity is related to home delivery and in centres of population: "A newspaper could present a (Gold Coast) Suns football fan with content about the AFL club, or personalised league news... and deliver NRL news in the same space if he's a rugby fan.

"Even with geography, there are ways of stylising it, but it rests on home delivery."

There is also the opportunity to sell an advertisement space twice or more: "An advertisement for a bottle shop might fetch $500 across a newspaper's whole circulation, while two stores on the north and south sides of town might share the space at $350 each, with the stores and the geography tied back to online through devices such as QR codes," he says.

Including personalised supermarket and store chain vouchers - currently mailed out to individual customers - in personalised print editions could perhaps halve the cost for advertisers if newspapers could account for a more substantial proportion of volumes.

Levels of home delivery in the country are low at about 15 per cent, compared to 40 per cent in New Zealand, yet thanks to the growth of paywalls, newspaper publishers know more about their readers than at any time before.

Much the same is true in the high-density cities of Asia and India, although for different reasons.

Combining that data with the brand reputation of newspaper mastheads and their ability to "cut through" marketing clutter through an individual personalised print edition - as APN did with its Flight Centre campaign - presents a win-win opportunity for publishers.

In the geographically-challenged Australian market, senior production management see digital newspaper printing as a solution to an unwanted logistical problem.

News Corp Australia got as far as announcing Kodak and manroland Web as its preferred vendors for a pilot project to print copies of flagship Melbourne tabloid the Herald-Sun in Brisbane, eliminating the need to airfreight them - but backed off in search of a better business model.

APN News & Media had been expected to install its own system to produce the projects of its Brand Extra initiative, but these are likely to be on hold with the board's decision to offer the Australian Regional Media business for sale, rather than invest further in it.

Which may leave metropolitan and regional publisher Fairfax Media as likely to be the first to make a move, possible with both inkjet web press installations and the use of inkjet imprinting (variable data printheads) on some of its web-offset newspaper presses.

One person who has been seeking to resolve the stalemate is Glen O'Connor, currently client services director of print management company Genii, and until recently principal of Primary Colour, who says he has had meetings with all the major players with a view to setting up a joint venture. "Everyone is interested, but no-one is willing to put any money into a venture," he says. "Or at least, to be the first one to do so."

O'Connor - who used to work in sales for IPMG commercial web unit Offset Alpine - says factory space would be unlikely to be a problem. What's needed is a major vendor partnership, and O'Connor is still hunting for that.

Opportunities in Asian and Indian markets are of a different kind: Huge readership in India means that even macro-publishing projects would be likely to run to tens of thousands of copies. ABP managing director and chief executive Dipankar Das Purkayastha spoke in 2013 of his ambition to see a print edition for every electoral division... but digital print is unlikely to figure in such a project.

The situation is different in the 'high-value' demographics of Hong Kong, Singapore and perhaps even Manila, where mobile use is high, but personalised digital print can still make a big impact.

As in the case of the APN projects in Australia, the products are more likely to complement than resemble newspapers as we know them.

Peter Coleman

APN How digital print integrates in APN's brand Extra

Personalised print is a key element of an integrated marketing product launched by APN News & Media's Australian Regional Media division last year.

The Brand Extra product integrates print with the division's websites, mobile and social media offering.

After a trial run at the publisher's Warwick Daily News in 2014, a full-scale promotion with travel agency Flight Centre has delivered on the hype and surprised participants with its effectiveness.

What presented as a personalised newspaper - with the reader's name on the front cover - included images and editorial targetted to customer demographics, with special offers, price and product advertising tailored to established purchase intentions.

A video now tells the story of the publisher's Daily Mercury travel liftout, timed to engage holiday flyers, demonstrate the agent's expertise and promote an upcoming hyperstore opening.

In it, Flight Centre editor-in-chief Brian Crisp, reminds that "content marketing is all about the right message to the right people at the right time".

The four-week cross-platform campaign focussed customers on a number of targetted destinations, based on Flight Centres customer segments. Local print content showcased destinations and incorporated local tips from the agent's Facebook audience.

Store managers were positioned as travel experts and brought a local face to the Flight Centre brand. Online, travel deals were matched to relevant destination content.

ARM's active mobile audience continued the conversation on social media.

The data-led custom newspaper combined the power of the local masthead with local editorial and local faces, with each copy unique and personalised to the customer including personalised advertising. Brand Extra utilised existing customer data, calling for registrations ahead of the promotion. Recipients were then encouraged to enter the competition by using a unique number from the newspaper to redeem offers of discounts and vouchers instore.

Flight Centre's Queensland and northern NSW marketing manager Rhiannon Doran says the promotion created a great vibe: "The store was full, with people really excited and great feedback from local residents.

"The local reader engagement drove oustanding brand and business results, with 70 per cent responding before the ad, brand preference increasing by 90 per cent, and 85 per cent taking action," she says.

Sales in the campaign market increased by 25 per cent and transactions were up by 40 per cent year on year: "Results were above our expectations," says Doran.

In a launch in Sydney, Australian Regional Media's chief executive officer Neil Monaghan said the product combined the power of data, personalisation and content marketing "into a custom print solution that uses the strength of our local masthead to connect with local audiences".

"It harnesses content marketing and layers it with local content, local faces and local conversations to create a personalised product that lifts conversion rates through a one to one, local to local approach.

"The personalised liftout connected really well with customers with some requesting additional copies for friends and asking us to produce the publication quarterly."

In the Warwick trial - timed with the Queensland city's annual rodeo - personalised digital print delivered Daily News subscribers a unique subscriber code, from which 21 per cent of recipients took direct action and engaged with the advertiser promotion.