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MediaNews Group will print personalized newsletters in consumers' homes for the first time next week, with the company's hopes pinned more on advertising than news.

The "Individuated News" project, still in testing, has been under way since early April when the company began producing the 12-page product for a dozen extended-stay guests at the Downtown Denver Marriott Residence Inn. MediaNews publishes The Denver Post and its corporate headquarters is in Denver.

MediaNews VP Peter Vandevanter

Peter Vandevanter, the company's vice president of targeted products, said Wednesday the experiment will be expanded to 25 homes on June 3 in the Highlands neighborhood of Denver and 60 guests at the Marriott in July. The company plans to install the printers in 300 homes this August in Los Angeles, where MediaNews operates the Los Angeles Daily News.

Unlike many Internet projects that may be popular but lack a business model, Vandevanter said, "This is kind of the opposite. We know the business model is solid, and we'll find out how popular it will be."

He summed up the business model like this: Consumers pay the printer's manufacturer a highly discounted price for the Internet-equipped device and they pay a modest subscription price to the local newspaper. The newspaper reimburses the consumer for ink and paper, and advertisers pay the newspaper to get their messages delivered to customers located nearby.

Pointing to coupons offering free coffee at Denver's Lodo Market, a free shoeshine at Cobbler's Corner and free beer and wine at local restaurants, Vandevanter asked, "What advertiser isn't going to go for this when we're putting it in the hands of customers who live within three miles of them?"

MediaNews charges advertisers five cents per ad per subscriber, a rate he describes as a bargain for shopkeepers intent on pulling people into their stores -- and a far higher rate than newspapers are able to charge online. He said he believes the I-edition ads will work especially well for grocery stores and realtors.

"I've been working on this project for a year and I'll be getting my first look at the printers next week," Vandevanter said in an interview following his presentation to the World Association of Newspapers in Barcelona.

Questionnaire for I-Edition users

In a deal with the Associated Press, MediaNews pulls the content from the AP Complete service. "It's no coincidence that Dean is chairman of the AP," Vandevanter said of MediaNews Chairman Dean Singleton's role on the AP board. "This is a good deal for the industry, and it's a good deal for the AP."

The newsletters include 12 pages of news (printed on both sides of six sheets) and two pages of advertising coupons. Recipients customize their reports by making three choices when registering: up to 20 of the AP's 240 news categories; one city; and one celebrity or other public figure.

Vandevanter said focus group participants have said they like seeing their local paper's logo displayed on the newsletter, adding to its credibility. Although it would be simple enough to pull content from a Boston Globe RSS feed for hotel guests from Boston, for example, use of such content would require separate rights arrangements with participating newspapers.

Vandevanter said he imagines the range of content will expand over time, including news and information produced by local residents as well as journalists.

He acknowledged that people could find such content on their own via an online search or an RSS feed. But he said early feedback indicates that busy consumers appreciate -- and may be willing to pay for -- a customized, printed document in their hands by 6 a.m. every morning.

The I-Edition has been criticized as a warmed-over repeat of earlier initiatives involving fax delivery of newsletters to homes. Vandevanter counters such critiques by arguing that earlier newsletters lacked personalization and hyper-local advertising.

He described the I-Edition as part of a hybrid model MediaNews is considering that would enable consumers to get home delivery of Saturday and Sunday papers (which generate more than 70 percent of the revenue for MediaNews), supplemented by I-Editions delivered to printers, computers or PDAs.

Such an approach could be especially interesting in Detroit, where home delivery of the Free Press and the Detroit News has been cut back to three days a week. Although MediaNews operates the Detroit News, Vandevanter said the decision about the home delivery cutbacks there was made by Gannett, which controls the Joint Operating Agreement for the two papers.

Vandevanter declined to name the printer manufacturer, but said he expects consumers will be able to purchase the devices, valued at about $150 each, for about $50.

Following a typical model for computer printers, the manufacturer expects to make its money, over time, via ink sales, he said. 

"We'll know when the printer is running low on ink," Vandevanter said, "and we'll know how much was used to print the I-Edition." He added, "We're not going to pay for the ink for you to print out your novel."