New app could see end of subscription coupons

The business behind a newly-launched smartphone app wants to make paper subscription coupons a thing of the past for newspaper sellers.

Digital voucher company i-movo has this week rolled out xPress, an app which allows retailers to accept digital newspaper subscription vouchers via their Apple or Android smartphones. Users will be paid automatically within seven days and will no longer have to count paper coupons or submit claims.

Digital payment via i-movo is already available in 62,000 locations across the UK, but chief executive officer David Tymm told RN the firm is now targeting “100% coverage of the news network.” He said smaller vendors without EPoS systems and pop-up kiosks in particular could benefit from the app. “We’ve heard from newsagents that have PayPoint, but sell for an hour at train stations – this app will enable them to process subscription sales at their pop-up locations,” he said.

Guy Day, from HND specialist Jackies News, hoped the app was another step to eliminating paper vouchers. "It will be helpful in our station kiosks where we haven’t got full payment facilities,” he agreed.

Mr Tymm added the app could also be a boon for university campus retailers hoping to take advantage of student digital subscription offers on titles such as the Guardian. Guardian News Media’s head of sales and revenue Rob Rattley said the app will “widen the reach of our student and marketing offers to stores that have previously been unable to participate.”

However, two university-run newsagents – the University of Warwick’s Rootes store and Premier St Davids in Exeter – told RN digital voucher subscriptions are an as-yet untapped market for students. One campus retailer, who did not wish to be named, said: “There’s certainly been a move towards card payments over cash, but students aren’t asking to use digital vouchers yet.”