March 31, 2009
HP is currently running a beta of a new online service called “MagCloud“. The service allows anyone to produce a magazine and print it – on demand – for $0.20 a page. The service also offers an online store to allow publishers to sell their magazines. The service will take care of printing, mailing, subscription management, and more.
HP’s longer-term plan is to sell their specialized printers and inks to businesses who will offer regional on-demand printing services.
This ability to do on-demand printing of magazines can allow smaller operations and professional service organizations to offer new services to businesses which need to quickly and cheaply produce magazines. One of the benefits offered by the service is the ability to do tweaks to the magazine master document much more quickly and with less cost then traditional methods of producing magazines.
