Who is the target demo? I'm old enough to have had actual newspapers appear on my doorstep. I ever saw anyone mount them on a wall, at least not in a private home. I would think a table/tablet orientation would be more appealing than an awkward wall mount. Is this thing meant to be art, a bit of faux-nostalgia decoration?
I think it's not that dissimilar to people who have a rotary telephone in their kitchen in 2023, use records, play tapes, hack Commodore 64 systems, or who use old Panasonic handhelds. There's a degree of personal expression in vintage technology that exceeds mere nostalgia.
I can't speak for this creator, but often these niche products serve a community of like-minded, or in fact are the mechanism or way to find and connect with a community of like minded people.
I think of folks doing projects around old technology paradigms as similar people to those who grew up building hot rods and find building cars to be greatly satisfying. Hacking a newspaper on your wall is similar, but in more of a dick tracy watch ethos.
I think people definitely do mount significant newspaper and magazine covers. The advantage of this, of course, is that it changes daily.
It's part function, part art piece imo. I can imagine somebody who's fairly well off drinking their morning coffee whilst reading this on their wall. A statement piece for the guests at their fashionable dinner parties too.
Yeah, my initial thought when someone said people don't mount newspapers was that yes, they do, even if not always in a personal or home context. It's exactly the type of thing you might see at certain bars, and there's no shortage of interesting famous front pages to display[1]. They're often about disasters, but there's notable very positive ones as well, such as the announcement of peace and the end of WWI and WWII, the famous newspaper announcing we arrived at the moon, etc.
Or you could just have it cycle through the most outlandish front pages from the Weekly World News about the latest exploits of Bat Boy[2]. Or switch to whatever your tastes are for the day! :)
If it is going to be art, I'd use some more creative content than daily newspapers. A series of fictional newspapers would be better. I would much rather it display a the front page of the Gothem Times with the latest Batman v. Joker news. Even realworld historical headlines would make for a better conversation piece. Older monochrome front pages would also probably look better on such as display.
If they got the actual newspaper animations and such from the movies, THAT would sell. An e-ink Harry headline, or wanted poster, would be something that any potter fan would seriously consider.
