In the district of Düren in North Rhine-Westphalia, some households are now getting their newspapers from the air: in a pilot project, the Heinen-Verlag ("Kölnische Rundschau") in Cologne is testing delivery by drone in cooperation with the Aachen media company.
"The technology and the regulation work. We have reached a milestone with that," said publishing director Johannes Heinen of the German Press Agency.
There is space for 16 newspapers in the cube-shaped magazine under the drone. The software controls the aircraft so that it ejects the intended specimen at a specified point. In the project, three households on the northern outskirts of Jülich would be supplied with the "Jülicher Zeitung".
Trial operation approved under new EU law
The aviation authority has approved the test operation under new EU law, Heinen explained. Accordingly, a computer-controlled drone weighing up to 25 kilograms may drop objects over inhabited areas.
Newspaper delivery by drone is interesting for rural areas with isolated buildings, where delivery is very expensive due to the distance or where there are no newspaper messengers.
In Germany, the circulation of printed newspapers has been declining for years. At the same time, publishers are complaining about increased delivery costs, also because of the minimum wage.
Heinen estimates that it will be a few years before newspaper drones go into regular operation. So far, the approval process for overflight rights has been very complex. "We can only wait until drones are certified so that they can fly anywhere."
Drones must be allowed to carry even more loads
In order for delivery from the air to pay off, the drones would have to be allowed to carry even more loads and be used for other transports during the day - when the newspapers have been delivered. Heinen-Verlag wants to develop drone services as a business model “in the short to medium term”. A subsidiary was founded specifically for this purpose.
Other publishers are also working on newspaper delivery by drone. Two years ago, the Funke and Madsack media groups took part in a corresponding pilot project in Thuringia, which was funded by the federal government.
Delivery logistics is a major expense for newspaper houses in Germany, especially in rural areas. Declining print runs in recent decades are one reason. Media houses also mention the minimum wage. In the past, and now again, the federal government is examining whether there could be state financial aid for media companies. There are no results yet. Previous attempts by the previous black-red coalition had failed.
