Chicago Sun-Times to Let Readers Buy Jay-Z, Beyonce Tickets With Bitcoin

The Chicago Sun-Times is launching a new type of advertisement that will allow its readers to buy products with bitcoin directly from printed material.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the Sun-Times will run product ads featuring QR codes. Readers will then be able to scan the codes and conduct transactions in bitcoin to make a purchase.

The first deployment of bitcoin QR code-enhanced ads is coming soon and will let readers buy tickets to an upcoming concert featuring Jay-Z and Beyonce at Chicago’s Soldier Field via a local ticket exchange.

According to Josh Metnick, chief technology officer for the Sun-Times’ parent company, Wrapports, the initiative will reshape the way that advertisers and consumers interact within a media setting.

He told the WSJ:

The news is the latest in what has become a broader bitcoin experiment for the newspaper, and has notable similarities to an initiative unveiled by mobile app provider Pounce and Lord & Taylor this March.

The Sun-Times adopted bitcoin payments in April, at the time citing the move as a way to "stay digitally focused".

The decision to accept bitcoin as a form of payment for subscriptions paid off, the company said later. During the week following the launch, the newspaper reported that roughly 11% of new subscriptions were paid for with BTC.

The media outlet's decision to partner with Coinbase followed its 24-hour micropayments trial with BitWall. That partnership found the newspaper collecting more than 700 donations for non-profit group the Taproot Foundation, and was one of the first major tests for BitWall, the California-based bitcoin micropayments provider.

The Sun-Times is also planning to accept altcoin payments, according to Metnick. He remarked that the newspaper would accept litecoin, dogecoin and peer coin, adding:

Additionally, the newspaper is launching an initiative that would allow readers to tip writers and editors in dogecoin. This concept is one of the dogecoin community’s most well-known characteristics.

However, Metnick told the Journal that the dogecoin tipping initiative is not quite ready for launch.

He cited ethical considerations as a potential roadblock, but stated that the idea of dogecoin tipping is "the new like", and that it could reshape how newspapers run as businesses and generate revenue.

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