Print-on-demand publishing may be on the verge of overcoming its niche status. Swedish company Meganews Magazines has nearly completed a kiosk which will allow users to select and print a finished, perfectly bound magazine in just two minutes time. The kiosk will fit tidily in the footprint of contemporary shop newsstands and its quality will reportedly mirror that of any well-respected mid-market magazine today.

On-demand services clearly make more economic sense than inefficient distribution models where too-many or too-few copies make it to shelves. If executed well, Meganews could mean perfect equilibrium in supply and demand, which will translate to dramatic savings for publishers and retailers as well as a meaningful reductions in paper waste and fuel for transportation. But while we certainly look forward to these less wasteful newsstands of the near future, it will be interesting to see how consumers who have so far continued to embrace print will react. Are we willing to give up the richness of occasional spot colour, rich paper stocks and leafing through before we buy?