Substantially, all newspapers and magazines that are sold in newspaper agents, tobacco shops, petrol stations, grocery stores, departmental stores, large marketplaces, etc., are sold on a commission basis. The suppliers/companies concerned supply a distributor with the newspapers and magazines in question, and the distributor, in turn, delivers these various newspapers and magazines to retail agents (newspaper stands, tobacco shops, and so on). The distributor also collects those newspapers and magazines that have not been sold. Naturally, the retailers must be recompensed for those newspapers and magazines that are returned unsold to the distributor, in accordance with the commission agreement.

These unsold newspapers and magazines are collected at regular intervals, which may vary from between a week to a month. Consequently, newspaper retailers have always had a negative attitude to the return of unsold newspapers, because of the time it takes (about 0.5 h. per day), therewith constituting an expense on the part of the retailer. Over 12,000 newspaper retailers are found in Sweden alone (of which about 4,600 are grocery stores).

Those newspapers and magazines that are unsold and are to be returned must normally be sorted and bundled together before

the distributor is able to pick them up and transport them back to a collecting establishment at which the returned newspapers and magazines are checked and credited to the retailer, and thereafter transported to wastepaper depots and paper mills for recycling purposes.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a technique which will considerably simplify the handling of returned newspapers and magazines at the various retail establishments, so as partly to limit the cost of transporting unsold newspapers, etc., and partly to provide a safer check of returned newspapers and magazines that are to be credited to respective retailers, and partly to provide quickly information relating to newspapers and magazines returned from the retail establishments to the suppliers/companies.

This object is achieved with the inventive method defined in the following independent method Claim. The object is also achieved with apparatus according to the following independent apparatus Claim.

Further embodiments of the invention will be apparent from the following dependent Claims.

The invention is based fundamentally on allocating to newspapers and magazines, etc., that are retailed on a commission basis with a code that contains information relating to at least the name and publication number of the newspaper, magazines and the like. Furthermore, an apparatus that contains a newspaper defacing device, which may be of a known kind, is placed at the retail establishment. Unsold

newspapers, etc., i.e. returned newspapers, can then be fed into the defacing device. The code allotted to the newspaper can then be read with the aid of an appropriate reader, in conjunction with defacing the newspaper. By ensuring (for instance with the aid of guide means, conveyors and outer apparatus-encapsulating means) that the code carried by a newspaper can only be read in conjunction with the actual defacement of the newspaper, the information read by the reader will constitute a confirmation that the newspaper identified by the reader has actually been defaced.

Subsequent to registration, the information read by the reader can be sent, e.g. over the telephone network, to an accounting centre, for instance located with the distributor, from which information can be forwarded to the publishing company concerned. The cancelled/destroyed newspapers, magazines, etc., can be transported to a general wastepaper collection depot and there collected for recycling purposes.

It will be seen from this that the publishers are quickly informed of the status of newspaper sales, and there is no longer any reason for a retailer to wait to return unsold newspapers, since a retailer is able to deface or destroy a newspaper when he/she considers the newspaper to be "old", therewith enabling the retailer to be able to use the space that would otherwise have been occupied by the newspaper concerned.

The invention does not, in principle, require newspapers, magazines, etc., to be allocated new code information, since the EAN-code conventionally allocated to newspapers contains sufficient information.

The newspaper defacing device will conveniently include means for destroying that part of the newspaper that carries the code concerned. The code reader of the defacing device will suitably be constructed so that it can only read a code when the cancelling device is active. Ideally, the reader is connected to a modem, possibly via a memory, that can be coupled, e.g. via the telephone network, to a corresponding modem with associated office computer located with the distributor, from which information relating to a given publishing company is sent solely to this company, for instance via a computer network to a computer of respective companies, where the actual sales of the company's newspapers, magazines, etc., can be quickly evaluated.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 illustrates schematically an exemplifying embodiment of an apparatus for carrying out the inventive method; and Fig. 2 is a schematic view taken on the line II-II in Fig. 1.

The inventive apparatus shown in Fig. 1 includes a newspaper defacing device 1 in the form of one or more cutters driven by a motor M. The apparatus also includes a newspaper-code reader 2 positioned in the path travelled by the newspapers into and through the defacing device 1. Also included is a store 3 for stacks of newspapers that shall be defaced piece- wise, said stack resting on a conveyor 4 which feeds the bottom-most newspaper and each subsequent bottom-most newspaper through an outfeed slot 5 in the stack store 3. A newspaper that is positioned correctly in the stack will be fed-out into engagement with the cutters of the defacing means 1 before the newspaper code can be read by the reader 2. The defacing device may also include a destruction device

6, for instance in the form of a cutting blade, that lies in the movement path of the newspaper code, so that the code will be destroyed as the newspaper passes the defacing device and after the code has been read.

The apparatus also includes a bin for collecting defaced newspapers. The reader is connected to a modem 8 which, in turn, may be connected on-line with an office computer located in the distributor's office, therewith immediately informing each publishing company of the newspapers that have been defaced or destroyed and the title of the newspaper.

This information may conveniently also be sent to the distributor, so that he/she is able to credit the defaced newspapers to respective retailers.

The apparatus may, of course, be supplemented and modified in a conventional way. For instance, the information deriving from the reader 2 may be stored in a memory and transferred therefrom to concerned parties in the event of queries, or at certain times, in some known way.