It cannot be too easy to successfully run a traditional newspaper nowadays. There are many obvious factors that have contributed to declines in business; here are just three:
- The number of people that get their news on a newspaper’s website
- The number of people that rely on social media sites to deliver news
- The emergence of hyperlocal sites such as Patch.com
However, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to quite a few newspapers that are striving to find ways to make their product more relevant to potential readers. One such way that they are doing this is by incorporating QR Codes to interact with the growing mobile audience.
Here are a few newspapers that have spent some time and effort in adding QR Codes to their pages:
- The Times Union in Albany is using them. They’ve been using them for advertisements and for some editorial content.
- The Seattle Times has used them to provide weather updates
- Metro newspaper in the UK published a large feature on them
- The Appeal-Democrat were recently honored for their progressive work, including the use of QR Codes
These are just a few of the ones that we’ve seen.
Have you seen one in a local paper? If so, please let us know. We’d love to check out and highlight how they are using them.
