Saturday, July 26, 2008
Trinity is starting to make moves in the mobile market
I see from Holdthefrontpage that Trinity Mirror is finally starting mobile sites for its top regional titles.
Frankly, it’s a no-brainer, which is why I suggested it for the Journal’s business website when I was interviewed for a job there a year ago.
As I was travelling on the Metro to the centre of the city I wanted to find out what the latest business news was and my mobile’s WAP browsing allowed me to do that thanks to the BBC News website.
Did the Journal’s? No. They had a nice site, with regular updates but it wasn’t mobile-enabled. It was a missed opportunity to get into the commuter market. Or maybe one they just weren’t ready for.
As I’ve said before, papers need to get into the mobile platform as it’s one of the few potential areas for advertising growth as the use of the mobile Web grows (enabled by cheaper access and easier to use access with devices like the iPhone which make it simpler). But a lot of what’s currently on websites won’t be right for pure Web 1.0 push of content as the screens are (and will likely stay) small. So pictures and videos will be too.
No, where the revenue growth may be from is selling services, maybe-location-based via GPS. Imagine, for example, going shopping and wanting to buy some chinos. Why walk round all the shops when you could tell you want chinos within 10 minutes walk? A GPS-enabled service (or Google Maps-linked) could tell you which retailers within that radius have ones in your size in stock, what styles and at what price (you could give the service your details as part of the sign-in process).
That’s the kind of interactive thing mobile could and should be doing. And is probably being planned by Google now, if they aren’t already doing it. Meantime the regional press are barely starting.
Labels: advertising, mobile, newspapers, regional, websites
