Sad but true: Almost every second industrially felled tree worldwide is used to make paper, which means that paper production is the key industry when it comes to the future of our forests. In a wider context, not only woods are affected by the felling of trees but also other ecosystems, plus it causes a decline in biodiversity. To counter this trend, swift action and a rethinking are urgently needed: One alternative, for example, is to increasingly use recycled paper, and an even better solution would be to considerably reduce the use of paper altogether and switch to e-papers when reading newspapers and magazines.
Media Carrier, a subsidiary of Munich-based MELO Group, specialises in the marketing and distribution of digital content and has developed the Media Box as an ideal sustainable solution. As a highly functional e-paper library, it offers a range of over 1,000 international newspapers and magazines and is mainly used in the tourism industry, e.g., by hotels and airlines. The Media Box is a web-based service and can be used on any web-enabled device, without the need for downloading an app.
Radisson Blu was one of the first hotel groups to use the Media Box’s digital content offering: Since 2014, this additional service is included for Radisson Blu guests and per year, more than 500,000 hotel guests make use of the platform, enjoying exclusive access to a wide variety of prime digital media.
ÒAs early as 2014, we decided to use the Media Box because for us, it provides a very valuable and innovative additional service for our guests. The choice of current newspapers and magazines from Germany and all over the world is second to none in its variety and as a tool, it is very easy to handle. Integration via our landing page or the Radisson Blu One Touch App makes it extremely convenient for everyone to use. Another key advantage is the fact that the Media Box is very much in line with Radisson Blu’s overall strong commitment to sustainable development,Ó stresses Holger Hermann, Regional Director Germany, and he adds:
ÒOffering content in a digital version means we can reduce paper consumption immensely when it comes to newspapers and magazines and at the same time provide our guests with a much wider selection of first-class media. There’s also no need to return newspapers which saves a lot of time and unnecessary logistics.
ÒOnly five years ago, hotel guests consumed media differently: Most people expected to be provided with a selection of the most important national media for breakfast, either displayed at reception or in the hotel restaurant. For hotels, this meant that they had to anticipate at short notice how high demand would be and how many newspapers and magazines would be needed the next day, which wasn’t always easy. As a consequence, on some days there were too many papers and on others not enough,Ó explains Philipp J. Jacke, managing director at Media Carrier GmbH. ÒToday and thanks to the Media Box, hotels don’t need to worry about such logistical issues anymore.Ó
No matter how many people want to read any given magazine, digital content can never be sold out. Electronic editions of newspapers and magazines don’t need to be displayed or disposed of. They save time and resources and most of all, they are environmentally friendly. In addition, even international media can always be provided on the same day because there’s no need for timeconsuming shipping which, in turn, reduces the carbon footprint.
The Media Box also reflects our changed media consumption habits: People have become much more tech-savvy and to a large extend communicate on their mobile devices or online. The use of smartphones, tablets or laptops is widespread, no matter the age group of users.
ÒThe Media Box enables our guests to download a variety of current newspapers and magazines on their smartphone or tablet, even before breakfast. They can browse their local newspaper or international titles that they don’t usually have access to. Our guests very much appreciate this opportunity and it is increasingly popular,Ó says Radisson Blu’s Regional Director Germany, Holger Hermann.
Another advantage: After download, users have unlimited and ongoing access to their chosen newspapers and magazines in pdf format, i.e., even after check-out, they can continue reading when on their journey home, on the plane, taxi or even at home.
ÒWe were able to reduce paper consumption by 11.5 per cent and thus significantly contribute to protecting our environment,Ó explains Holger Hermann. ÒIn addition, we not only use the Media Box to provide our guests with external media but also for the distribution of our own hotel brochures and in-house magazines in order to increase awareness and save on high printing cost. New editions or add-ons can easily be provided in a digital format without incurring too much additional cost.Ó
As a ÒSoftware as a ServiceÓ (SaaS) offer, the Media Box can be integrated anywhere in the world by any company. It is an ideal product for customer-focused service companies, wanting to provide their customers and guests with a special and clever Òon the goÓ service and current high-quality media.
The Media Box is a white label solution so that it can be adapted to any given corporate design and every company’s processes. Media Carrier takes care of the e-paper usage rights and the entire technical implementation, including Media Box set-up, design, integration and ongoing development. Transparency is guaranteed as every client is provided with their own personal access to the back-office system to get all relevant figures and data, such as number of downloads, access times but also information on operating systems used and which media are the top performers. The latter ranking indicates which titles are particularly popular with users and, in reverse, which ones are hardly read, i.e., hotels can draw their own interesting conclusions about their guests’ reading habits.
The Media Box selection includes major newspapers such as The Times, The Washington Post, Tagesanzeiger, La Repubblica, Hrriyet and Le Figaro as well as business titles, e.g., Financial Times, Wirtschaftswoche and Handelsblatt. German newspapers included are, amongst others, Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Zeit and Sddeutsche Zeitung, as well as major regional papers such as Rheinische Post, Berliner Zeitung and Hamburger Abendblatt. It is a web-based service and can therefore be used with any web-enabled device, no matter if Apple or Android, tablet or notebook. Users neither need to install an app nor register and provide personal data. They simply connect to local Wi-Fi and are then automatically (or via a landing page) taken to the Media Box where newspapers and magazines are easy to find and provided as downloadable pdfs in their familiar print layout for intuitive reading via scrolling or swiping. Individual passages of text can be enlarged via a zoom function.
