IFRA

WAN-IFRA: How expensive is it to produce AR material? What tools are needed?

PEREY: There is not one answer to this question as the cost of AR depends on quite a number of variables.

First, it depends on if the newspaper wants to partner with a company that is already developing AR solutions, or if it wants to bring this capability in house for multiple projects. There are many options for outsourcing which are economical for newspapers before AR gets really popular.

Also, it depends on if the newspaper has some media already or if new content (videos, animations, 3D models) must be created specially for the project.
Finally, it depends on what the market requires. It may be necessary for a news company to educate the market about mobile AR before the audience (readers) understand what to do with the AR enhanced pages. This can take a long time or a lot of money.

WAN-IFRA: The biggest potential for AR lies probably in the advertising area. What can newspapers do to support advertisers and to develop this business?

PEREY: Yes, I think that advertisers are interested in engaging with readers/customers. But this would not be the newspaper's responsibility to develop the content. A third party developer or service provider will jump to do this.

I believe that the newspaper should not discount the opportunities to do AR in the information and entertainment pages as content, without advertising. I have seen examples of AR with feature stories as in the Esquire magazine December 2009 issue. Please look it up on the Web.
 

For more information contact Christine Perey at: cperey@perey.com