When my newspaper spoke to me

Tuesday morning begun like, well, every Tuesday morning. I woke up as usual after putting my alarm on snooze at least thrice. Then half in my sleep picked the newspaper from outside the door and threw it on the sofa. Made my cup of coffee and sat down to read the paper. I picked the paper unfolded it and began to read. However, as soon as I unfolded the paper I heard someone croaking in the background, giving some gyaan on Volkswagen and I was like “What the hell?” My newspaper was talking, and like many others I too was caught off guard with The Times of India’s latest innovation the “Speaking Newspaper”.

True to its image of always bringing about changes in the print media, TOI in association with Volkswagen released their latest innovation – The Speaking Newspaper. The speaking chip inserted in the paper on September 21st was a “blockbuster” of a kind as claimed by the publication ensuring that Tuesdays will never be the same. Supposedly, the world’s first speaking newspaper had a pre-recorded message on the new Volkswagen Vento, which played the moment an unsuspecting reader opened the four page special supplement. This innovation startled most of the readers. Some found it interesting while some irritating and in some cases it led to funny situations.

Reactions:

• “My paper is haunted”: Watching too many late night horror flicks? Well, if you were one of those maybe that was your reaction. People in some parts of the city thought their paper was possessed or haunted and immediately threw it away after which some people went ahead and conducted puja’s and havans to rid their place of all evils.
• Bomb alert: Many places witnessed calls being made to the police as some suspected the device to be a bomb. In Mumbai, someone heard a beeping sound and alerted the police. The bomb squad reached promptly and cordoned off the area only to find an audio-ad. Soon the commissioner of police in Mumbai and Delhi alerted the people not to get stressed. Well, at least something kept our pot bellied cops busy and on their toes.
• Collector’s Item: No sooner did the word go around, that many people wanted to lay their hands on the first speaking newspaper. Beg, borrow, steal or buy the Times Group did witness a surge of sales and interest amongst the people. Everyone seemed to want one copy for themselves. Maybe a few years from now someone will find it in their khazana and probably tell their grandchildren tales on the first speaking newspaper.
• Prank paper: Many people used the paper as Tuesday morning pranks, wherein they startled or scared unsuspecting readers.

Pros:

• Innovative: The concept is not only interesting but quite innovative. Though this was an ad, for the future for those running late for work or are too sleepy and are unable to scan the news, it would be helpful to have someone read it out to you instead. After all you can’t carry your TV along with you and not everyone has net on the go.
• Generate interest: What the speaking newspaper did do was create a buzz around town. Not only was it a great promotional tactic for Volkswagen as I am sure everyone took notice of their new vehicle but also for the paper. People who never read papers actually made it a point to read the paper that day, even if it was just that supplement.
• Smart move: The smart move was made from the Times Groups point of view. This 4 page supplement shared the same masthead with different stories as the front page of the main paper and The Bombay Times was enclosed within these 4 pages, thus, making it look like the main paper and many regular readers mistook it to be the main paper too till they heard the voice.
• Marketing strategy: However, irritating it may have seemed to some, one had to admit it was a novel and a great marketing strategy for both the paper and Volkswagen. People actually took notice of both the brands, and this led to an increase in circulation in the paper as well.
• New age media: In today’s day and age when newspaper readers are declining as they are switching to newer forms of media, this if developed on further can bring about a respite to the declining readership. A newspaper you can read and hear does sound like an interesting concept.

Cons:

• Intrusive: Yes, it is a good concept and a great idea but couldn’t we be forewarned instead of being taken by surprise. Honestly, when a person wakes up in the morning, they do like that “alone morning time” which is filled with some form of serenity and being caught off guard with a man croaking in the background seems a bit intrusive. And imagine the quest of the person who has a habit of reading their daily morning dosage of news in the loo.
• Instructions please: Okay you wanted to surprise us, point taken. However, couldn’t the Times Group be generous enough to donate some edit space to instructions on how to stop the speaking chip from speaking? Though all one had to do was cover the speaker to stop the sound, not everyone realised that. This led to people breaking the device and throwing them out of the streets.
• Better voice quality: Any which ways you ended up spending I am sure quite a bit on the speaking chip, so why couldn’t you do us a favour and get an instrument whose voice quality was better. I would have really appreciated it if I heard a person talking instead of croaking early in the morning.
• Newspaper or Ad-paper: Volkswagen got a four page supplement, plus an ad in the main paper, so why did the speaking chip only have to talk about Volkswagen. The Times of India is a newspaper not an ad-paper and if they wanted this to be called the speaking “news”paper then maybe they should have had someone narrate the headlines followed by “this was brought to you by Volkswagen”. Alas! Money talks.