A regional magazine publisher is trialling new technology which allows readers to interact with a printed product through their smartphones or tablets.

Just Regional, which publishes a series of free magazines across Norfolk, and printing company Barnwell Print, have carried out a successful nine-month trial of the ‘Clickable Paper’ for Ricoh UK.

The technology aims to bring publications to life by allowing readers and advertisers to interact through the printed word via a Ricoh app.

The app allows content to be uploaded onto a device by hovering it over the page and can include up to six links, including websites and videos to social media sites and entry forms for competitions.

Julian Barnwell, managing director of Barnwell Print, said: “We have had a lot of experience with QR codes in the past, so when we saw Ricoh’s Clickable Paper solution last year, immediately recognised its enormous potential.

“However, Clickable Paper is a far more intelligent and dynamic product than QR technology and moves the interactivity proposition on several steps from QR codes. Effectively, Clickable Paper enables publications to be used as a portal to direct readers to all kinds of extra information or entertainment.

“It’s an extremely exciting product for printers and we’re looking forward to developing the concept further with Ricoh and Just Regional through stage two of the project.

“Our customer, Just Regional, is a respected and successful regional publisher, producing nine town magazines in north Norfolk and north Norwich, delivered to 40,000 plus homes each month. As such, we knew it would be the perfect partner for this trial.”