May 11, 2009 -- I-News to test in Denver, then roll out in L.A.

DENVER — MediaNews Group will begin testing its I-News individuated news concept in a Northwest Denver neighborhood May 25, the publisher told News & Tech last week.
The trial is a forerunner to the official rollout of the service, which is planned to take place in August to subscribers of MNG’s (Los Angeles) Daily News (see News & Tech, March 2009).
Peter Vandevanter, MNG’s vice president of targeted products, said Daily News readers will be able to select news based on their interests, which will be combined with news from an undisclosed wire service, Daily News content and targeted advertising.
Readers can either access I-News as an i-edition online or upgrade to receive a printed product via a smart, wireless desktop printer installed in their homes, Vandevanter said.
L.A. users opting for the latter option will begin taking possession of their printers, from an undisclosed vendor, in July, he said.
“For testing in Denver, we are taking news from the late edition of The Denver Post, scraping the headlines and paginating those articles in the same order of hierarchy as they appear in the printed newspaper,” Vandevanter explained. “The next step takes content based on reader preference from the [wire service] server.”
That process, Vandevanter said, is based on coding developed in-house by MNG IT staff in Denver.
“It’s basically RSS to PDF technology,” he said.
Meantime, Vandevanter said MNG has committed to finding an application within the group’s markets for Printcasting.com.
Look for more information about I-News in the June issue of News & Tech, as well as information and developments leading up to MNG’s third Individuated News Conference scheduled to take place June 24-26 in Washington, D.C. INC3 is co-sponsored by Newspapers & Technology, Accrisoft, Océ and The Washington Times.