QR code: tool for journalists?

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QR code: tool for journalists?

niemanlabqr Michael Josefowicz, self-styled “print evangelist” and a frequent commenter here at Nieman Journalism Lab, has a new post at PBS’s MediaShift that will bring you up to date on QR codes, which look to be “CueCat done right.”

QR stands for “quick response.” QR codes are two-dimensional scanning code blocks that can be placed in print ads. Readers scan the code with their Web-enabled cell phone and are instantly connected with Web content relevant to the ad. Marketers get an instant read on how well their ad is working and how much of their Web traffic is print-driven. The codes are fairly common in Japan and are beginning to show up in European publications. As usual these days, we’ll see this in the U.S. somewhere down the road.

QR codes can be used by journalists as well — they can be included in a print story to connect readers with background or detail, or to provide feedback to reporters and editors. The QR responses can also help sort out what kinds of readers like what kinds of content. Josefowicz:

For an editor or journalist, QR codes can deliver real time data on the most ineffable and important feedback, answering questions like “Is this story interesting to people who live in a geographically defined community?” While there is an approximation of the “interesting” factor on the web, the fact is that the web is still for a niche audience of very interested people. If the task is to engage the previously uninterested, data from web clicks is much too noisy.

QR codes have the potential to cut through that noise and help transform the way we use these media. My personal passion is not print or newspapers, it’s fixing high school education. Since I believe that print is the best learning tool and the web is the best talking and tracking tool, as the connections grow between these two media, a tipping point in educating our young people will emerge. That’s one way the world is changing.

The common wisdom about print has created a ferocious noise that has drowned out the signals of new print-to-the-cloud technology. I will try to amplify that signal over the next few weeks. Once it gets on the radar of journalists and newspaper publishers, the world will change, again.

It’s intriguing to speculate about the many ways QR could be applied: advertisers could put them on bus and subway ads; vandals could create QR stickers — scannable graffiti; authors could put them in books to link to content updates; AAA could put them on maps to link members to local services and attractions.

QR is open-source. I generated the one illustrating this post via Kaywa’s QR code generator; it decodes to the Nieman Lab URL.

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http://www.timwindsor.com/ Tim Windsor

Is there any way to use this code if your phonecam isn’t hardwired to recognize it?
Pingback: QR-code para jornalistas | MediaCircus
http://www.niemanlab.org/ Joshua Benton

Nick Bilton at the NYT has also talked up this sort of technology — specifically Semacodes, in his case. At his TOC speech a couple months back, he said we could expect to see something like this in the Times in relatively short order.

That said…geez, am I ever skeptical. Maybe I’m scarred from working at The Dallas Morning News at the height of the CueCat insanity, but this feels like a solution in search of a problem. I just can’t imagine a ton of people seeing great value in something like this. What’s wrong with good old fashioned links? They can accomplish everything this can, from an end user’s point of view, but they can also be human readable.
Dave Barnes

URL shortening is good enough.
http://toughloveforxerox.blogspot MichaelJ

Martin,
Thank you for picking up the post.

Josh,
The counter example is that QR codes are ubiquitous in Japan are quickly moving to Australia and now Europe. I think we have to be careful of the “people like us” problem. I still have to figure out how to take a picture on a cell phone and email me to my son. Frankly, it’s not worth the effort to learn.

On the other hand he (37 years old) does it all the time so I can get photos of the granddaughter.

The real issue are the real time metrics that can be delivered back to advertisers. Once real time data can be delivered from print, the apparent insurmountable advantage of web advertising starts to ebb.

The real breakthrough, in my not so humble opinion, will be in K – 12 education. A single printed sheet can give the headlines with a QR code to take a student to a wiki or video adding to the student’s knowledge at just the moment that he is interested in it. I’ve seen high school kids with their cell phones, they would love it.
http://newsafternewspapers.blogspot.com/ Martin Langeveld

The assumption here is that a lot of Web reading will move to mobile devices. Again, in the U.S. we’re way behind most of the rest of the world in making that shift.

Josh wrote “What’s wrong with good old fashioned links”; Dave wrote “URL shortening is good enough.”

That’s fine if you’re already on a web page. But in print, without QR, all you can do is print the URL, or its shortened version. Now you have to type that into your iPhone or other mobile device to view the web page. The idea of QR is that you can point, scan, and be on that page without the hassle of entering a URL. My understanding is that there are apps for iPhone and others that can do this.
http://newsafternewspapers.blogspot.com/ Martin Langeveld

Another idea (found on Twitter): Put one on your business card. People you give it to can instantly view your site on their phones.
http://www.niemanlab.org/ Joshua Benton

I guess my skepticism derives from the fact that this is an idea whose major benefit is to advertisers (more sophisticated use data) but which asks a behavior change of consumers. It was the same argument with the CueCat: the alleged benefit was to the advertiser, but all the behavior change was in the hands of consumers. And no one was willing to do it.

Also, just to speak cynically from an ad sales point of view, do we really want advertisers to get more clickthrough data to use against us? I mean, online ad prices have been driven down by a lot of things, but one factor is that the ability to track clickthroughs online has given advertisers evidence that very, very few readers were “interacting” with their ads. And that’s contributed to the downward pressure. If suddenly advertisers are given another data point that shows only 0.001% of their readers actually shoot the QR code with their phones and go to the special web site, isn’t that likely to bite us in the end?
http://newsafternewspapers.blogspot.com/ Martin Langeveld

Josh, if only .001% of print readers scan the printed QR, that would bite print advertising, not web advertising. And I have a different take on Web clickthroughs. If you get a clickthrough rate of a quarter or half a percent, which is fairly typical, in my view that’s great. If you ran a print ad in a paper with 100,000 readers, and one quarter of one percent (250) walked into your store, you’d be ecstatic. If that percentage click through to your web site, it might not be quite as good, but I look at it as delivering you a customer, and now it’s your job to make the sale. If you can make your ad more “interactive” (watch a video, do a survey), the participation rate increases.

In any case, though I’m a business-side guy, I’m actually more interested in the journalistic applications here that can drive print readers to web content.
http://toughloveforxerox.blogspot MichaelJ

Just wanted to get this site on people’s radar. http://2d-code.co.uk/

They keep track of uses of QR codes around the world.
http://japanman.wordpress.com Ian Duncan

These codes are absolutely everywhere in Japan but I’m not sure how much they are really used in print journalism. The main use seems to be in advertising. For example, chains of clothing stores have them up on the walls, you scan the code, sign up online, and get a discount. Or people hand out packets of tissues in the street with the code on to take you to website.

The advantage of using them for advertising seems fairly obvious – you can grab someone in real life and get them looking at another advert or buying something.

For news though younger people will be already getting it on their phones and older salaryman types probably won’t care.
http://toughloveforxerox.blogspot MichaelJ

I think the very fact that the technology is well proven in advertising is the opportunity to take that tech and repurpose it for advertising.

Much of the buzz is about how do we get the younger generation to get involved with newspapers. Imagine a contest on the top of page 1 with a QR code. Take the picture, go to the site to see if and what you’ve won. Newspapers have been running contests for ever. It’s just a contest with a new tech.

My sense is that the mass, as opposed to the technorati and news junkies, of the younger generation is not a mass market for news of any type.
http://toughloveforxerox.blogspot MichaelJ

oops.. no edit button…the sentence “repurpose it for advertising” should read “repurpose it for print newspapers.”
http://lfpresslabs.com @SteveatLFPress

I have struggled for the better part of a year to find a journalism or advertising problem that QR Codes, or the more recent Microsoft TAG system could address. As any IT person will tell you when you have to look hard to find a problem to fit the solution you’ve already got, it ain’t going to work.

I can’t think of one possible application for QR Codes that you couldn’t address with a simple compressed vanity URL.

Snaptell for the iPhone (www.snaptell.com) is probably a better starting point for a possible solution. For example, take a picture of a building and the system recognizes it and retrieves articles from your web site related to that location.
http://newsafternewspapers.blogspot.com/ Martin Langeveld

Steve:
You mean you would rather print a vanity URL people have to type into their cellphone browser than give them a QR code to point at (assuming, as Michael says, first there is wider adoption of QR on the ad side)? I do suppose Snaptell could evolve to where you take a picture of the printed URL and the phone takes you there.
http://lfpresslabs.com @SteveatLFPress

Martin:

What I’m submitting is that the extra effort to have people install a QR Code reader isn’t justified to save them from simply typing in something as simple as ‘tr.im/LDNnews’ or a vanity URL to that effect. Now, QR Codes can store actual information in the code itself, not unlike any 2D barcode format such as is common on shipping labels. But what would you store in the code that you simply couldn’t display more effectively in a mobile web page?

Where I believe Snaptell will take us a place where you could take a picture of any ad — the ad itself, not the vanity URL — and it would be able to recognize the content and return a mobile web page of information. With Snaptell you could take pictures of print ads, billboards, even captures of TV screens with commercials playing, and the tool could return a mobile web page from said advertiser. A Snaptell-like tool should also be able to return such info as the prices of said products from local retailers based on the GPS data on the iPhone or BlackBerry.

A Snaptell-like tool could also allow a person to take a picture of a landmark, or a photo in a print article, or any number of other such applications, and take the user to editorial pages of information. What I’m suggesting is a more effective marrying of photo recognition technology with search technology. One which would have both advertising and editorial applications.

I’m not suggesting that QR Code is a pointless exercise. I’m just saying that I’ve given it a lot of thought and I can’t come up with anything that the QR Code adds other than a way to more efficiently type in a URL into a mobile web browser — nothing less, but nothing more. I think we need to look beyond that to a system that really solves a problem for mainstream consumers.

Just my 2 cents.
http://toughloveforxerox.blogspot MichaelJ

@ Steve,
I’m interested in any thoughts you may have about the ubiquity of QR codes in Japan and Korea. I think the difference between QR codes or visual recognition tech is much less important than the seamless experience of connecting the physical world – newspapers, posters, books, etc. with particularly videos on the web.

In general it would be a mistake to underestimate the importance of convenience. Framed differently convenience is at the heart of usability. In that sense the Mac GUI is much more convenient than Windows and print is a very convenient platform when it is connected to the web.
http://lfpresslabs.com @SteveatLFPress

MichaelJ,

I’ve wondered about the ubiquity of QR Code in Asia myself — and don’t have an answer unfortunately. It hasn’t taken off in Europe either, a hotbed of mobile computing. A similar question is why vending machines in Asia allow you to pay via RFID and Bluetooth, but I’ve not seen one such vending machine in North America outside of a few test markets.

Is it because of a tech-centric culture in Asia? Is it because Japanese mobile devices all have QR Code decoders built into the devices’ operating systems? Maybe if RIM’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone had native QR Code support, we would see some interesting ideas in North America.

On your point re convenience, I couldn’t agree more. I guess we keep looking for opportunities to integrate QR Code, and keep close tabs on Microsoft’s TAG initiative. They have the marketing muscle to move this concept mainstream.
http://toughloveforxerox.blogspot MichaelJ

I think the answer to the ubiquity of QR codes, etc in Asia has to do with the penetration of broadband. America is way behind the rest of the developed world in broad band. Korea and Japan are leaders.

No doubt there is also a specific history and culture that helps explain the broad adoption. It might well be that the major electronics gadget companies are based in Japan.

Both Android and the iPhone have QR reader software available now. As Android moves to become the operating system of more and more cell phones, I can’t see what stops this from becoming commonplace.

The Walkman grew and developed in Japan. Only when it was debugged and tested in place did it scale to what I like to think of as Euromerica.
http://SNAPPERCODE.COM SCOTT JENSEN

Tim Windsor (comment #1) asked if you could read code if phone is not hardwired. YES U CAN! Just take a picture of the code and send it to snappr@snappr.net and within seconds they will return to u what the code holds. Will work on desktop or any phone with a camera and internet.
Have fun snapping!
http://www.onyi-ajar.com onyi

i’m just doing some prelim research as an artist assistant, and found this thread very interesting and educational.

the question posted regarding QRcode’s popularity in Asian countries such as Japan and Korea may partly rest in the different systems of language.

navigating to a url, even a shortened url would require the use of the Western alphabet/keyboard; this is very different from the symbol based system that Asian language is based on.(As a North American person of Asian descent, and having used an Asian keyboard for simple tasks, it can feel very trying unless it is a fully integrated part of one’s lifestyle.)

with this in mind, Asian countries have adapted to certain Western standards in order to navigate the internet like the rest of us, however with the option of a symbol based ‘snap-and-go’ system this frees the user from typing in alphanumeric characters into a web browser field.

i think it is this key difference that leads North American markets (very slow to change) and some European markets to believe that the learning curve and the extra software required to use QRcode is more work than necessary for a system that already functions well (for Western markets especially).
http://toughloveforxerox.blogspot MichaelJ

Onyi,

Thanks for the observations. It’s something that never occurred to me. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in Euro Language countries.
http://lfpresslabs.com @SteveatLFPress

Onyi — Fantastic insight re the character issues in Asia versus Western alphabet. That makes it a much more necessary technology in those countries.

It’s interesting to note that The National Post in Canada has begun to use these, and they include the condensed URL right beside the 2D barcode. It highlights even further for me that this is pointless the way it has been adopted. They’re just taking space away from the story with no tangible benefit other than to appear ‘innovative’.
http://toughloveforxerox.blogspot MichaelJ

If they are harvesting the data and using it to prove that print advertising works, then it’s smart.

If they are harvesting the data and sending it along to the journalists to help them see which stories have traction, then it’s smart.

If they don’t harvest the data, then it’s just as you say.

Re QR codes v tinyurls. Today there is little difference. Going forward QR codes, using a technology called Code Z invented by CODI in Canada can embed customer information in the code. When the click is made, the interaction is linked to the information about the person who made the click. If that becomes mainstream it could be a game changer.

Meanwhile yesterday Apple announced that G3 iPhone is going to sell for $99 and every telecom on the planet is rushing to build 4G networks.

Sometimes the difference between appearing innovative and being innovative depends on your point of view.
http://www.qrme.co.uk Ian Foster

I run QRMe.co.uk, a QR code reference website and
it looks like UK, Europe and the US seem to be the early adopters of the technology. Top visitors are :-

17.5% UNITED KINGDOM
13.8% UNITED STATES
8.4% GERMANY
6.8% BRAZIL
6.2% AUSTRALIA
4.2% SPAIN
3.6% POLAND
3.2% NETHERLANDS
2.6% ITALY
2.3% FRANCE
2.2% CZECH REPUBLIC
2% HUNGARY

Regards
Ian
Brad

If the point is to link people immediately to a webpage, is it really that difficult to write software that can go from a picture of a written url to open the page (perhaps denoted between two symbols, eg. #www.google.com# ). Seems like it would reach more people if people without the necessary phone software could still type in the url. Or is it actually more about showing off how your phone can do this cool new thing.
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Tags: Michael Josefowicz, QR code

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