The Juneau Empire's new newspaper boxes, featuring a credit card payment system, are beginning to show up around town.
Story last updated at 10/21/2009 - 10:39 am
The Juneau Empire's circulation department has rolled out five new credit card- and debit card-friendly newspaper vending machines and has plans to replace the entire inventory within the next year.
"We would hope to replace all 66 of them within the next year," said Empire Circulation Director Brian Naplachowski. "We want to be more progressive. There aren't that many people that have racks out there that accept credit cards."
In addition to coins, the new IMPACT vending machines, sold by Bellatrix Systems Inc., take all forms of debit and credit cards and are expected to give readers a more convenient way to buy their daily newspaper.
By next week, 12 of the new machines will be in the community, Naplachowski said.
"The reason papers haven't done this in the past is because it has always been so expensive," he said. "When you go into a store and you use a credit card, they charge companies quite a bit of money to process that. So, to buy something that is only 75 cents and to process that would generally be pretty expensive."
Naplachowski said Bellatrix Systems agreed to a deal with PayPal to make each transaction a secure microtransaction.
"When we go collect the money out of the machine, we also collect all the information, which is not visible to anybody but PayPal or our bank," he said. "So, it meets all the codes for safety and is highly secure, we never have access to anybody's information."
He said they collect often to keep as little money in the machines as possible to limit the burglary risk.
"It's very futuristic compared to what it is now," Naplachowski said.
There's also a new feature in the exterior of the new vending machines.
"What's unique about these racks is that it's an opportunity for local businesses to market their companies," he said. "We're allowing them to put 'skins' on the racks."
Five of the new news racks are already out at the Nugget Mall, the Auke Bay post office, the ferry terminal, the clock downtown and Donna's Restaurant. To inquire about advertising, call the Empire at 586-3740 and ask for advertising or Circulation Director Brian Naplachowski. He can also be reached at brian.naplachowski@juneauempire.com.
• Matthew Tynan can be reached at matthew.tynan@juneauempire.com.
) to vote to remove a comment. Three votes will hide a comment from view.
or 
) to rate comments. These ratings do not effect the status of a comment.
