Many people look at cruise ships as the ultimate escape from the rigors of day-to-day life. But just because a passenger is isolated at sea does not mean they want to be isolated from knowing what is going on back home.

To that end, passengers aboard ships of the Radisson Seven Seas Cruises (RSSC) fleet will now have the option to get same-day out-of-market newspapers from around the world, delivered initially to the ship via satellite and then printed by the ship’s crew for delivery to the passengers. NewspaperDirect is providing the newspapers and Maritime Telecommunications Network is providing the satellite connectivity to deliver the newspapers to the ships.

“I think one of the reasons we are doing this is there is a myth around that when you go on a cruise you are out of touch,” Andrew Poulton, director of strategic marketing for RSSC, told Satellite News. “The cruise lines have done a really good job of providing Internet service now. Pretty much every ship you can go on now has an Internet café or has Internet access for most of the guests. That has been phenomenally successful and something we, in the cruise business, did not think people would need. After all, one of the whole points in going on a cruise is to get away from it all.”

“To add another layer to that keeping in touch philosophy, we decided that one thing people would like to do is to keep in touch by reading their favorite newspaper,” Poulton said. “People like to have a comfort of knowing that they are in touch with their home while they are at sea. So what better than to be on a cruise ship in Singapore and be able to get that day’s edition of Le Monde or USA Today?”

Passengers, when they board a cruise ship, will have the option to have a newspaper of their choice, picked from a list of about 90 papers worldwide, delivered at the frequency they request–from specific days to each day of the cruise. The newspapers are near complete facsimiles of the papers they would receive at home, including all the local advertising, Poulton noted.

Passengers pay $4.95 per newspaper per day that they have delivered, a price tag that is not meant to provide a revenue stream to RSSC. “That is approximately what it costs us to download the news, print it out and deliver it to the guests,” Poulton said. “It is not us looking for extra revenue streams. It is providing an additional service to our guest that we feel is valuable and something they will appreciate.”

(Andrew Poulton, RSSC, 954/940-7377)