Its 7:00 a.m in the lobby of the Baltschug Kempinski Hotel in Moscow as a weary business traveler drops two cubes of sugar into his coffee and ponders the day's hectic schedule.

But the first order of business: the box score of last night's Yankee game, of course. He shoves his laptop aside and thumbs through the late-night edition of New York Post. Damn. Neagle lost again. With his Yankees still in first place and his local paper tucked under his arm, Mr. Businessman becomes a more comforted, and busy traveler.

Who needs in-room CD players and oversized whirlpool baths?

NewspaperDirect, an Alley start-up which this week deposited $1.7 million in second round funding, is aiming to deliver same-day copies of international newspapers on demand at luxury hotels around the world.

The lead investor in this round of financing was Esther Dyson, CEO of Edventures. Several unnamed angel investors also were also part of the round.

According to Miljenko Horvat, the company's CEO, the papers will be beamed digitally to hotels, printed on high-speed stations at about two thirds the size of traditional broadsheets and sent to guests' rooms.

"We are already offering the New York Post to hotels and by next month, we will have three of the major New York papers on board," Horvat told atNewYork.

Horvat, a former Citibank executive, said his company has definitive agreements in the works with several major hotel chains to install the printing stations. "Once the technology is installed, then it is just a case of getting the orders from the hotels and custom-printing the morning newspaper," he explained. A station is also being installed for Holland America Cruise Lines.

Publications on board are the Financial Times (the most popular, according to Horvat), Spain's El Pais, Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung and Canada's Vancouver Sun and National Post. So far, about 15 titles are in "production mode" and another dozen or so have signed up for the service, including dailies from India, Pakistan, Israel and Brazil.

The newspapers will receive payment according to their circulation, much like regular newspaper distribution agreements. Horvat said NewspaperDirect charges about $2.00 or $3.00 per newspaper to hotels, who will be free to determine their own charge to guests.

With this new round of financing, Horvat said his 25-employee firm will spend the bulk of the funds on the installation of the print stations, which includes high-tech printers provided through a strategic alliance with Hewlett-Packard.

"The money will be spent on the rollout of this network. We have HP on board as a business partner and, within a few weeks, we will be announcing a major distribution deal with a major hotel chain," Horvat said. Horvat hopes NewspaperDirect's service will be available on every continent by yearend.

"The technology of the world is advancing. We are living in a wireless world but, we all know that nothing can replace your morning paper." Horvat said he believes in his business plan; now he's relieved his investors feel the same way.

*Ryan Naraine is an assistant editor with atNewYork.com