Mobile changing the consumption of Information, a 3 year Roadmap for Mobile Newspaper Success

It is an accepted fact that the consumption of news on Mobile Phones is growing.  Anyone who thinks print is growing hasn’t seen the number of idled pulp and paper mill capacity that ironically can be repurposed by data centers to host internet news.

ZDNET writes a perspective on the subject of Mobile and News.

News on mobile phones is growing; Newspapers get second chance

Posted by Sam Diaz @ 3:30 am

Categories: General, Mobile

Tags: Phone, Mobile, Cell Phone, Cellular Phones, Consumer Electronics...

The Associated Press took an interesting approach to a report released today by the Pew Research Center about news consumption in an online world. That headline highlighted that 26 percent of adult Americans now get their news from their mobile phones, an interesting statistic. It also noted that 43 percent of “younger’ cell phone owners - that under age 50 - are also reading news stories on their phones, compared to 15 percent of cell phone owners who fall in the “over-50″ category.

I like the ZDNet Between the lines because they refer to other news like CNET.

There was a lot more to that report and CNET breaks it down nicely. For example, 59 percent of the audience get their news from both online and offline sources and 57 percent said they have between two and five favorite Web sites to visit for their news. It also found that 37 percent are engaging in the news, either by commenting or pushing headlines to their friends and associates via social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

and, they point to a blog entry by Reynolds Journalism Institute at University of Missouri.

But I found the statistic about mobile especially interesting because, just a few weeks ago. a fellow of the Reynolds Journalism Institute and an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, published a blog post that sounded the alarm about the news industry’s need for a mobile strategy for content delivery.

I tell some friends that I am staring to work with Mizzou and they have one of the top journalism schools. One person having a journalism degree, said “never heard of them who is famous from their school.”  Knowing I was talking to someone who didn’t know journalism, I had fun and pointed out Brad Pitt went to Mizzou for Journalism.  That got her attention.

pittBRAD PITT
Brad Pitt was born on December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. He attended Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Missouri and majored in journalism at the University of Missouri. He was a member of Sigma Chi and the Homecoming Steering Committee and did some acting in Greek talent events. Just two credits shy of graduating, Pitt took off for Los Angeles to start his acting career.

But, there are well respected journalist too.

lehrerJIM LEHRER
Jim Lehrer was born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1934. He is a graduate of Victoria College in Texas and a 1956 graduate of the University of Missouri Journalism School.

 

 

And, Mizzou has a blog just on Mobile Journalism, and wrote an entry on Feb 6, 2010 for a 3 year timeframe on how Newspapers need to start now on their mobile strategy.

The road to 2013: A timeline for newspapers

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Clyde Bentley

When I first saw Gartner Research’s list of predictions for IT organizations and the people they serve, I was amused.  Guessing games are always fun. As I read on, I became concerned.  Then a bit afraid.

But now I’m just fired up for a challenge.

Gartner is no slouch at forecasting trends in technology and business using sophisticated research tools to make more-than-educated guesses.  This year’s predictions ranged from India taking the lead in cloud aggregation to Internet marketing coming under government regulation.

the timeframe is as follows.

Bentley’s Timeline for Mobile Newspaper Success

February 2010 Gartner predicts mobile will replace PC in Web access by 2013
March 2010 Research  the cell provider/handset type in newspaper’s market area
April 2010 Key editors have smartphones
May 2010 Designate mobile editors
June 2010 Mobile edition (MWeb) online content
July 2010 Text-message alert systems activated; reader mobile phone numbers collected
August-September 2010 Train news and ad staff on mobile potential
October 2010 Have apps for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Symbian
November-December 2010 Offer mobile coupons via text and mobile Web
January 2011 Ready to receive mobile voice, text and image submissions from the public
February 2011 Reporters have phones that can capture image, video and sound and deliver it to the home office
March-April 2011 Integrate mobile content and commerce: Bar code advertising, ticket sales
May-June 2011 Optimize MWeb/app editions that take advantage of GMS, return text, text-to-voice delivery
July-August 2011 Provide niche M-news: Smoke-break wraps, during-game scores, pre-commute weather
September-October 2011 Offer location-based feature stories/videos/ads
November 2011 Link readers into mobile social networks with “find friends nearby” ability
December 2011 Offer location-based feature stories/videos/ads
January 2012 Newspapers take the lead as top mobile news provider
February-March 2012 Provide just-in-time comics, mobile games
April-May 2012 Provide mobile guide/help/find services
June-July 2012 Offer full-length books and longform features for mobile reading
August-September 2012 Provide augmented reality stories and ads
October -November 2012 Offer Web-enabled handsets as subscription premiums
December 2012 Integrate mobile and online newsroom operations
January 2013  More people access the Web by mobile than by PC

But, not one month later, Pew Research gives more research information referring to the growth of mobile devices used to read the news.

3 years may be too long of a timeframe for the newspaper agencies.  The likes of MSNBC, Google News, and the following are all planning the list already.  Here are the top 6 Google search listings for “news”

  1. Breaking News, Weather, Business, Health, Entertainment, Sports ...
    - 3 visits - 11/30/09

    Mar 1, 2010 ... Msnbc.com is a leader in breaking news, video and original journalism. Stay current with daily news updates in health, entertainment, ...
    www.msnbc.msn.com/ - 24 minutes ago - Cached - Similar -

  2. CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment ...

    CNN.com delivers the latest breaking news and information on the latest top stories, weather, business, entertainment, politics, and more.

    World - Money - Sports - Video

    www.cnn.com/ - 45 minutes ago - Cached - Similar -

  3. Breaking News | Latest News | Current News - FOXNews.com

    Breaking News, Latest News and Current News from FOXNews.com. Breaking news and video. Latest Current News: US, World, Entertainment, Health, Business, ...

    The O'Reilly Factor - World - Video - Politics

    www.foxnews.com/ - Cached - Similar -

  4. Google News

    Aggregated headlines and a search engine of many of the world's news sources.
    news.google.com/ - Cached - Similar -

  5. The top news headlines on current events from Yahoo! News - Yahoo ...

    Feb 28, 2010 ... Use Yahoo! News to find breaking news, current events, the latest headlines,news photos, analysis & opinion on top stories, world, ...
    news.yahoo.com/ - Cached - Similar -

  6. Technology News - CNET News

    Mar 1, 2010 ... Tech news and business reports by CNET News. Focused on information technology, core topics include computers, hardware, software, ...
    news.cnet.com/ - 24 minutes ago - Cached - Similar -

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25,000 views of Apple Data Center video

The above YouTube video has reached 25,000 views in 3 days.

and there has been plenty of news/blogs about the video.

Video flyover: Apple's new cloud computing center

CNNMoney.com (blog) - Philip Elmer-DeWitt - ‎21 hours ago‎

The 500000-sq.-ft. facility is nearly five times the size of Apple's current server farm Apple's Maiden, NC, data center. Video: Bill Wagenseller According ...

Weekly Poll: Why Is Apple Building a Massive, $1 Billion Data Center

ReadWriteWeb (blog) - Alex Williams - ‎9 hours ago‎

This post is part of our ReadWriteCloud channel, which is dedicated to covering virtualization and cloud computing. The channel is sponsored by Intel and ...

Aerial video shows Apple's 500000 sq. ft. server farm in NC

MacNN - ‎17 hours ago‎

An aerial video, captured from a helicopter, allegedly shows Apple's new data-center located on 225 acres of land in Maiden, North Carolina....

Aerial Footage Of Apple's New North Carolina Data Center Shows Massive Facility

Cult of Mac (blog) - ‎19 hours ago‎

Aerial footage of Apple's massive data center in rural North Carolina clearly show how large the $1 billion complex is. Shot recently by a local realtor, ...

That's Apple's New Data Center? Where's the Giant Glass Cube?

All Things Digital (blog) - John Paczkowski - ‎20 hours ago‎

When plans for it were first announced, Apple's North Carolina data center was described as “as big as they come” and in more colloquial ...

First Look: Apple's Massive iDataCenter

Data Center Knowledge - Rich Miller - ‎Feb 22, 2010‎

How big is Apple's new iDataCenter in Maiden, North Carolina? It's plenty big, as illustrated by this aerial video posted to YouTube (apparently taken by an ...

I joked  in a Aug 2009 post that Apple is the Data Center Paparazzi target and a helicopter fly over fits the pattern.

Aug 18, 2009

Data Center Paparazzi Target was Google, now Apple, Watch the Rumors

Remember when we speculated on Google Data Centers?  People took pictures like the paparazzi of Google’s data centers and posted pictures to drive traffic.  But that is old news.

Now Apple is the new star.

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Taking a short blogging break, back Feb 22, 2010 attending IBM’s Pulse 2010 event in LV

I have reached over 1,100 blog posts and it is increasingly easy to write on the Green Data Center topic, but it is winter break for my kids and we’ll be skiing with three different families over a week, so work and blogging is going to take a back seat for the next week.

Thanks for adding this blog to your RSS Reader.

Be back in a week.

-Dave Ohara

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Who will win Emerging Market Mobile Opportunity? Nokia’s strategy is questioned

Gigaom has a post on Nokia’s Ovi Store and the emerging market.

Are Emerging Markets Enough to Fuel Nokia’s Ovi Store?

By Colin Gibbs Feb. 2, 2010, 12:27pm PST No Comments

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Nokia’s Ovi Store, after stumbling out of the gate last year, appears to have found its rhythm, becoming the storefront of choice for mobile developers in emerging markets. But whether it can turn that success into big money is unclear.

Deemed “a complete disaster” in the wake of its launch last May, the Ovi Store has gained remarkable traction in recent weeks. Nokia last week said the storefront had begun delivering a million downloads a day, and Greystripe — which recently scored another $2 million in funding –  today said it had extended support for its mobile gaming ad network to the Ovi Store. Research In Markets has confirmed the momentum, proclaiming that the Ovi Store has overtaken Apple’s App Store in “crucial high-growth emerging markets” in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America.

The success in Emerging Markets is questioned.

That success is getting lost in translation, though, in Western Europe and North America. An executive from the mobile app analytics firm Flurry told me this morning that over the last year building for the iPhone has accounted for roughly 80 percent of developers’ time, while Java — the feature phone platform that Nokia dominates — accounts for only 1 percent. And Flurry has some experience in emerging markets, as it built and distributed email apps for feature phones in developing economies before shifting its focus to higher-end gadgets in more mature markets.

The Economist makes a good point on what are the mobile services for emerging markets.

The third trend is the development of new phone-based services, beyond voice calls and basic text messages, which are now becoming feasible because mobile phones are relatively widely available. In rich countries most such services have revolved around trivial things like music downloads and mobile gaming. In poor countries data services such as mobile-phone-based agricultural advice, health care and money transfer could provide enormous economic and developmental benefits. Beyond that, mobile networks and low-cost computing devices are poised to offer the benefits of full internet access to people in the developing world in the coming years.

Here is another example of how mobile phones in emerging markets are used for entrepreneurs and finance.

In 2005, the Grameen Foundation set the stage for emerging market cell phone adoption and launched the the “Village Phone” business in rural Bangladesh, publishing a how-to manual and setting up micro-finance loans to villagers in towns that had no access to telecommunications.   Four years later, entrepreneurs have finally caught on and despite the downturn, the last 6 months has shed light on a few innovative initiatives that have been announced in a variety of sectors around the world.

In February, the Gates Foundation in partnership with a worldwide consortium of mobile industries teamed up to announce the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) initiative.  With a goal of supplying 20 million people with mobile financial services by 2012, this program will enable those in developing countries to carry out mobile banking from their phones in order to protect and grow their money.

How many iPhone users use their phone as their primary banking device?

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