Print media is dying. More people now prefer smartphones, tablets and e-readers to consume their news, books and magazines.

According to a recent report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, readers both young and old are now more interested in paying for digital subscriptions than purchasing printed material. The report stated that nine percent of Britons, 10 percent of Germans, 12 percent of Americans and 13 percent of the French have paid for digital news within the past year.

Mashable and Statista also recently released a survey which states that the New York Times has more than one million digital subscribers, closely followed by the Wall Street Journal with about 900,000 subscribers. Though other online publications have less than 300,000 subscribers, that is expected to increase as more people consume news with their mobile devices.

With that, News UK’s Commercial commissioned a project with Central St. Martins Innovation Centre to employ eight graduates from MA-Communication Design and MA-Industrial Design to work on a project revolving around the future of news. The project was overseen by Dr. Matt Malpass, with the participation of Kate Brangan, Josef Clinch, António Felizardo and Emma Kalkhoven from MACD, as well as Masami Lavault, Pierre Papet, Yuhan Wan and Victor Johansson from MAID.  Below are the products of these imaginative individuals.

Concept for the Future of News

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image via Objects and Interactions

Boris e-Readers

Not everyone can afford to buy an e-reader, tablet or smartphone. So what will happen the day print media finally dies and only digital media is available? The Boris e-Reader is a concept design for e-readers or tablets that would allow commuters to rent them out while they are onboard the train. They can use their credit card or Oyster card to access news from sources such as the New York Times.

Receipt news

A lot of newsworthy stories can happen in the span of 24 hours, but newspapers have always limited coverage to the amount of space paper provides for printing. Receipt news is a concept design that will allow the delivery of news on the go, while saving paper. Receipt news makes use of the blank space on the back of receipts, printing news tidbits as you shuffle along your daily consumer activities.

Edible news

Print or digital, some people just don’t have enough time to just sit down and read. Even the passive act of listening to your news through apps such as Umano, one concept is taking news consumption literally.  The Edible news concept is designed to work with your multivitamins. Bacteria will be programmed to act like microprocessors and will be able to transmit information. The harmless bacteria will be placed inside a pill which will be placed in a news charger to program the content of the bacteria. The information can be tailored to your interest so you will only eat news that you want.

Brand Gesture

The problem with digital content is that apps use the same basic gestures to get around. If you want to get to the next or previous story, you swipe left or right on the screen; if you want to zoom, you pinch the screen. People don’t know what app you are using, they just know you are reading something. Brands seeking differentiation are thinking up gestures unique to their own apps. That way, with just one look, others will know if someone is reading from an app from the New York Times app or an app from the Sun.

For example, the New York Times can use a tilting gesture, which would direct the app to turn the page; going forward or backward would depend on how you tilt the page. If you tilt the tablet up, it will go to the next page while tilting down will return you to the previous page. The more people use this, the more the tilting action will be associated with their news app.

Gestures can also be used to make tangible the digital reading experience.  Using accessories already common with mobile devices, an iPad cover could be used to control a digital news app.  These augmented covers could launch the app by rolling the cover to one side, while squeezing it would turn the page. Unrolling the cover halfway can reveal more content and unrolling the cover fully will close the app.