Trinity Mirror, the UK newspaper and magazine publisher behind the likes of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People, has launched a new mobile app for Android and iOS called PaperPay, the first app from Trinity Mirror’s New Businesses team.
In a nutshell, PaperPay allows readers to buy newspapers with nothing more than their smartphone and a bar code on their screen that can be redeemed at participating PayPoint or Payzone terminal newsagents in exchange for a copy of their chosen newspaper.
While the the app is already live, the offer won’t begin until next Monday, 25 March. We’re told that it’s technically being piloted in London to begin with, but is actually available to 47,000 newsagents across the UK. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but suffice to say it’s going to be available at a newsagent near you shortly.
At launch, it will be restricted to only the Daily and Sunday Mirror, but will soon be opened up to all Trinity Mirror titles, and there’s even scope for the technology to be licenced to other UK publishing houses.
How it works
Subscribers simply go to their nearest participating newsagent, which the app shows on a map, and the e-voucher is redeemed for a copy of the selected paper.
While PaperPay is free to download, users must subscribe to the newspapers they wish to read, and this subscription generates a unique voucher/bar code that is displayed within the app.
Now, with the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) service, you won’t save anything on the cover price. So that’s all about the convenience – you won’t have to fiddle around with spare change to pay for it. But if you’re prepared to pay weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually, you could save yourself a few bucks. Subscriptions can only be made through the mobile app itself, using SMS, PayPal or credit/debit card.
For me, it would seem to have made more sense to include a barcode/QR code on the publication itself that lets users scan and pay without actually needing to queue at the checkout at all. Many newsagents already run a similar trust-based system, whereby particularly busy outlets let you drop your payment into a pot and leave immediately.
“PaperPay is convenient for the consumer and retailer alike,” says Matt Colebourne, Director of the New Business Division at Trinity Mirror. “The consumer can enjoy their daily paper, as usual, pay for it in a hassle-free way and make significant savings over time; the retailer receives full cover price direct to their bank account.”
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