Has the Guardian finally cracked how to make money from digital?
#guardiancoffee is the latest pop-up to open its doors in Shoreditch in an attempt to make their journalists more accessible.
The paper has teamed up with Nude Espresso and EE to deliver what its readers truly want – caffeine and wifi.
iPad stations on tables and free super fast 4G connectivity mean coffee drinkers can peruse the Guardian and Observer online.
The pop-up store incorporates a ‘data-driven’ ethos with tablets in the tables, Twitter projectors and infographics plastered on the walls; literally ‘feeding’ their consumers with news and food.
A RICH BLEND
The experience takes place in Boxpark, the world’s first pop-up shopping mall made up of shipping containers.
It’s not the first innovative tech pop-up to hit the mall. Back in February online printing company Moo grabbed their own container to let customers compare and order products in person.
Jemima Kiss, Head of Technology at the Guardian, said:
There’s a real appetite at the Guardian to rethink how we work as journalists and publishers, so combined with the fascinating tradition of news and coffee houses, that makes for quite a rich blend.
A latte problems to solve
Last year the Guardian reported a pre-tax loss of £75.6m, much of which was down to huge investments in technology.
Innovation on their website is one such investment, and presumably #guardiancoffee is another – so are outlets like this the future of publishing?
Bookshop coffee areas are now the norm but this wasn’t always the case – it could now be the turn of the newspapers.
Who knows – we could see #telegraphtea or #sunsundae hitting our streets in the near future.