A partnership between Kooaba and digital newspaper distributor NewspaperDirect delivers the technology to access a digital copy of a newspaper article you’ve seen in print.

The Paperboy app from Swiss image recognition start-up Kooaba connects a print-edition reader with the more than 2000 newspapers in 95 countries in NewspaperDirect’s collection.

Users snap pictures of full pages or articles of interest and share them as PDFs via Twitter, Facebook, email or SMS… or store them for future reference. The free app – available for iPhone and Android devices – also gives access to additional information like videos or related online content.

Kooaba chief executive and co-founder Herbery Bay says the partnership also benefits publishers, as a tool in their fight to stay competitive in the face of competition from online and social media.

“As the so-called digital natives come of age and more and more consumers turn to the internet as their primary source for news and information, the publishing industry needs to find ways to keep subscribers and attract new readers,” he says.

In the first phase of the rollout, the partnership makes newspaper content immediately available within Paperboy in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. More than 780 US, UK and Canadian newspapers will follow in November, and the company says Asian readers, those in Australia, New Zealand and other countries will be able to use the app later in the year.

Paperboy is available as a free download at www.paperboytool.com.