The use of bar codes in newspapers and in mailroom/distribution operations

Summary

In January 1987, we informed our members about the use of bar codes on reel wrapping and put forward a proposal for standardisation in our Special Report 1.2. Bar codes have been used for some time already for the identification and automatic control of newspaper bundles in the mailroom, and a few countries use them also to mark individual copies, e.g. to enable the allocation of returns to the date of publication concerned. One such country is France where all magazines and about 50 percent of all newspapers have bar codes printed on the front page.