We all know the future looks quite bleak for newspapers and journals. Many publications have already fallen victims to the predatory internet with its free, easily accessible and real time reports. Some have speculated that newspapers must either over-specialize or abandon their offline presence in order to survive the coming decade.
However, there’s another option – forming a merger between an online and an offline presence, via augmented reality. We’ve already seen Esquire toying with such a concept, but now a daily newspaper in Switzerland has made a giant leap ahead.
Since this Wednesday, every page of the Swiss Blick newspaper can be scanned using Kooaba, an iPhone/Android application. Once scanned and identified, the user can see additional information about the articles or ads visible in the page, add them to her online library, and share with friends. Remember, this is not a single issue being augmented, but rather every issue from now on will have this extra layer of information.
Follow the link to see a video of Blick being augmented, but since that video can’t be embeded, here’s another one, showcasing Kooaba’s technology:
More information here.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Handhelds and Cellphones, Kooaba, Markerless |
Games Alfresco 
Its a good development, but it wont save newspapers.
Data doesn’t need a physical medium to be exchanged, and news is, fundamentally, just data.
Rather then trying to make the old medium higher-tech, they should focus on making micropayments more attractive to the public so investigative journalism can continue.