The newspaper of tomorrow?

Open the newspaper with your morning coffee, read an article and watch a video about the topic on the same page? It may sound like a vision of the future, but it is already reality. AR technology is already making a connection between digital and printed worlds possible.

Thanks to the AR features, readers not only have access to additional information, but can also experience the newspaper content in a more tangible way. The AR issue of F.A.Z. on the topic of reunification contains image galleries and sliders with photos from the GDR era, interviews with contemporary witnesses and videos of historic moments, such as the first celebration of German unification on 3 October 1990 with speeches by Willy Brandt and Helmut Kohl, all embedded in the context of the editorial pieces.

The virtual content can be accessed simply by scanning the QR code printed in F.A.Z. An app does not need to be installed.

This is how it works:

•    Articles with AR content are identified in the F.A.Z. issue by a corresponding symbol and QR code.
•    To access a feature, the reader scans the QR code with their smartphone camera or a QR scanner app and allows the AR app to access the camera.
•    After that, all readers need to do is hold their smartphone or tablet over the image with the AR symbol and the content becomes visible.

The AR issue of F.A.Z. was published on 2 October 2020 with a double circulation of 500,000 copies. It is the first issue in the 70-year history of the national newspaper to be published with digital content. Saint Elmo's was responsible for the implementation concept and technical implementation of the virtual content. This marks the second time that F.A.Z. and Saint Elmo's have collaborated: in 2019, Saint Elmo's designed the AR components for the special F.A.Z. supplement to mark Serviceplan's Innovation Day.