Google Scan-To-Pay App Turns Newspaper Digital

As much as the payments industry is transforming, the archaic print media has undergone its own rapid series of changes.

And both industries — evolving to meet consumer demand — have one thing in common: mobile payments as a way to eliminate payment friction. From the newspaper side, mobile payments isn’t a traditional media route — especially with most publishers’ eyes on jumping page views or driving advertising dollars. But with the help from Google, one Seattle newspaper is changing up the newspaper mobile payments game.

Real Change newspaper, which was designed to help the homeless and low-income get money, has introduced a digital payments option that enables an app to help its newspaper carriers sell digital editions of the paper for people who want to grab a copy without having to reach for change. This option, Reuters reported, allows consumers to scan a barcode and get a copy of the digital edition for $2.99 (.99 more than the print edition).

“This app will help our paper survive in the digital age, when fewer people have ready access to cash and more people prefer to read news content on their mobile devices,” Timothy Harris, founding director of Real Change told Reuters.

This app was part of a volunteer project from a team at Google to develop to help Real Change eliminate the problem many of its vendors encounter as they sell their papers: no one has cash anymore. Enter the mobile payments app. Real Change retains rights to the app, which is available for free on both Google’s Android and Apple iOS operating systems.