Services including Sunnygram, Presto and Celery offer a way for digital writers to correspond with analog readers. According to last week’s Time magazine article, “Hi Gramps, Here’s a Printout of My E-Mails,”
By choice or chance, what Ahart calls the “unplugged population” has lost some important connections, especially the tradition of sitting around the family album sharing cherished memories. These e-mail services help fill in those gaps. Bellanca, for example, feeds her father’s passion for photography by Sunnygramming him several pictures with notes each week. My husband’s Gram, who has seven kids, 15 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, complains that she receives so many photos her Presto ink runs out too quickly. Which, we assume, is a problem most grandparents would be happy to have — no matter the delivery method.
Sunnygrams cost $9.95 per month and are delivered weekly in a single mailed envelope, no matter how many letters you write. Messages can include photos and are delivered in newsletter form.
Presto is setup differently, users purchase a special printer for $75 for their analog-reading relative or friend and then pay about $15 per month to use the service. Costs for paper and ink are extra. The special printer acts essentially as a fax machine, printing out e-newsletter style messages when they are sent electronically from email.
Celery is also unique, offering two-way communication options for email people and analog people who can use a fax machine. Letters can be written by analog folks and then faxed in for conversion to email, or emails can be written and faxed to analog readers. Pricing is $14 per month for color, $9 per month for black and white, and this covers 100 sent or received pages, whichever comes first. Celery is “available throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.”
A friend of mine in Lubbock told me years ago about his idea to offer a service similar to these, for people who either don’t have access to email or don’t want to use it. It’s great to learn other creative entrepreneurs have been thinking and acting along the same lines!
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