Say what you will about physical inflight magazines, they were remarkably resilient for decades. First launched in 1952 by Pan Am and quickly copied by other carriers, the printed medium survived the digital revolution that began in the 1990s and with it the adoption of seatback IFE in the world fleet.
Several years ago, however, airlines started ditching inflight newspapers and traditional airline magazines in a bid to slash weight, reduce wastage and improve their eco-credentials. That trend accelerated during the Covid pandemic as the crisis placed renewed emphasis on minimizing touchpoints onboard aircraft.
Some titles do live on in digital form, or in paper-plus-digital hybrid implementations, such as found on Cathay Pacific.
But by August 2024, when Modern Retail reported that United Airlines would discontinue its Hemispheres magazine, a decision preceded by the 2021 exit of American Airlines’ American Way magazine, the writing was on the wall: the heyday of the physical inflight magazine was over.
One company that has aided industry’s transition to digital magazines and newspapers is Media Carrier Solutions, which in 2022 emerged from media logistics company MELO Group as an independent operation, ready to focus entirely on helping airlines provide infotainment to passengers whilst driving sustainability forward.
Media Carrier Solutions’ digital media library, dubbed Media Box, comprises a total of 1,600 international titles. Airlines can pick and choose from this library to provide content to passengers at specific touchpoints — via pre-flight download, over the airline app, at the lounge, at the gate, inflight over the wireless or embedded IFE system, or served up as part of a Wi-Fi portal — or indeed across the entire travel journey including the post-flight realm.
The Munich-based firm can also support different business models. For instance, some operators including Singapore Airlines offer passengers unlimited access to a select collection of titles for a period of time, whilst others like Lufthansa offer a set number of free titles based on class of travel. The cost of the service can be offset with programmatic advertising.
“It really depends on an airline, what an airline wants to offer. So in lounges, it’s unlimited; we have frequent flyers and premium customers and you don’t want to limit them. But some of the airlines limit it” elsewhere, based on booking classes, explained Media Carrier Solutions managing director Sandra Bardewyck.
Yet as more and more airlines equip their aircraft with broadband inflight connectivity pipes, including Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satcom, will e-paper specialists like Media Carrier Solutions still have a role to play?
Seated in a SpaceX Starlink-sponsored coffee lounge at the APEX Global Expo in Long Beach, Runway Girl Network posed the question to Bardewyck.
Rather than see this paradigm as a threat, she replied, broadband IFC provides a clear opportunity for Media Carrier Solutions as it enables the firm to provide online access “to our whole portfolio” should the airline choose to make it available to passengers.
She explained that when a Media Box library is stored onboard to facilitate embedded or wireless IFE for passengers, it must be loaded to the aircraft server and usually contains up to 60 publications “so not such a big variety, but still convenient.”
It’s possible to load newspapers every day, but in the end, “it’s a question of money,” she noted, i.e. how much money does an airline want to pay to facilitate this kind of daily service.
Given that a high volume of online news web sites tuck their content behind a paywall, the notion of instead offering the entire Media Box library to passengers over IFC is particularly appealing.
“We hear it all the time how people might have a subscription” for various publications, said Bardewych. “Yes, they might have, but not for all publications. You might have one subscription but might be interested in something else.”
Magazines, on the other hand, often provide aspirational and educational content that resonates with the captive audience inside an aircraft tube. “If you want to refurnish your apartment and you see a title about furniture, you’d pick it,” noted Bardewyck.
Already boasting a strong presence in Europe, Media Carrier Solutions is now working to expand in the US and Asia.
“We see lots of potential in Asia, lots of new airlines,” Bardewych confided to RGN. The firm is also bolstering its portfolio, adding podcasts and other performances, and it’s eyeing new news feeds.
“There’s a lot of changes with social media so we have to be open and look at different things,” said the Media Carrier Solutions managing director.
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Featured image credited to istock.com/AleksandarNakic
