Las Vegas newspaper introduces newsstands with digital displays

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has introduced a newspaper stand that blends traditional print with digital technology, an initiative the company is calling the RJ Network.

The newspaper racks are equipped with flat-screen monitors streaming RJ-produced videos from local and breaking news to sports and weather.

The racks are currently inside 30 Terrible Herbst convenience stores in Summerlin and the northwest Las Vegas area, but will expand into 107 Terrible’s locations by the end of this month.

Plans are underway to expand RJ Network into other high-traffic retail locations in Clark County, said Chase Rankin, Review-Journal senior vice president of sales and marketing.

He said the media company is an early adopter of the technology and joins a handful of other news outlets with the monitors, including the Tampa Bay Times, Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

“We’re always looking for new and innovative ideas that would resonate with Las Vegas and Clark County, and a new way for us to deliver advertising messages and get our partners new ROI,” Rankin said Friday.

Viewers can expect a steady stream of fresh headlines each day, and the 15-second news segments will be dispersed between 15- to 30-second commercials.

Jim Prather, the newspaper’s executive director of programming, said it’s just the beginning of the company’s video distribution network.

“There are folks who will get news and information from us who aren’t aware that we’re doing these (video) news updates,” Prather said Friday. “So it’s another platform for us to take Review-Journal content we create … and get it in front of as many users as possible.”

The monitor-fitted racks also have sensors to detect when a person walks by or is facing the screen and determines the person’s approximate age and gender.

Prather said the data is anonymous and not stored in the monitor. The sensor helps track how many people watch RJ Network and is used to verify viewership — similar to how page views are tracked for online news stories.

“It’s an added content layer,” Prather said. “You have the newspaper, you’ve got the website. You’ve got all the ways we reach people through social media, and now you have another revenue-enhancing platform for us.”

Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @SubrinaH on Twitter.