A media conglomerate is experimenting with delivering newspapers that are customized, not just with neighborhood news for a single part of town, but with custom newsgathering for each individual newspaper customer.

MediaNews Group, parent company of The Denver Post, is using a downtown hotel and a neighborhood in Denver as a guinea pig for its trademarked “I-News” (short for “individuated news) news-delivery method.

Like a newspaper version of a personalized RSS newsfeed reader, I-News is news, gathered for individual readers’ interests. Guests in the Denver hotel trial will have a printed newspaper featuring news from their hometown, along with feature articles on topics the readers previously indicated were of interest to them. Advertising from businesses near the hotel will be included in the custom publication. I-News can be printed, as well as sent to a cellphone or computer.

Media News Group, based in Denver, is the newspaper company that owns the San Jose Mercury News and the Denver Post as well as the Los Angeles Daily News, where a similar trial is planned for later this summer.

In the Denver residential trial, the custom-news experiment involves “state-of-the-art printers equipped with fax, copier and scanner,” according to an article in the Denver Post. Residents will get to keep the special printer at the end of the three-month trial.

Via the Denver Post