This year a global body of telecommunication regulators will meet to set the first standards for 4G (fourth generation wireless) and the world’s biggest electronics companies want to be at the forefront with solutions and patents that will eventually earn lucrative royalty income.

In many markets, mobile services will accelerate to dominate media consumption for more than fixed digital media.

The mobile opportunities for newspapers go much further than the simple transmission of content. Here are 10 ideas that publishers can apply:

•Games and promotions. Many newspapers are transferring games such as crosswords and Sudoku to the phone. Readers can be encouraged to play against each other or in groups, and seek clues from the newspaper for premium rates.

 

•Ticketing and coupons. Vouchers can be sent to mobile devices, in the form of bar codes, which can be used at venues, or to redeem goods or discounts

•Polls and petitions. Newspapers can use the phone as a response generator. These have been successfully used for daily in-paper polls on local issues. They can also be used as a petitioning device by encouraging readers to send a standard message to a politician or businessman. There is even talk of mobile phones being used as a polling device in elections.

•Research. One newspaper association has been using mobile technology to conduct readership surveys. The results provide the entire key readership measures but additional provide continuous data, which has previously alluded traditional readership researchers.

•Advertising response. Classified advertisers can encourage response utilizing their mobile numbers. Setting such systems up with the equivalent of box numbers in short codes can generate revenues for the newspaper that are far greater than the cost of the original advertisement.

Display advertisers can benefit from short code response mechanisms in their advertising. This has already proven to increase response levels for major advertisers, and clear guidelines are available for delivering such responses.

•Advertising placement. Mobiles can also be used to place advertisements.

•Advertising distribution. And of course mobiles can be used as the distribution channel delivering text or video images to the phone.

•Communities. Some publishers are using the mobile device to create highly focused communities. These may be neighborhoods, where a simple code accesses everyone within a 1-mile radius. This way residents can report traffic problems, local dangers, newcomers, local events, etc. After all, this is news of great importance to the residents but perceived as trivial by traditional newspaper editors.

Communities of interest can be created for specific sub groups, i.e. parents, common sports enthusiasts.

•Create the news. More and more newspapers are encouraging readers to send in stories, pictures, and even video clips. Newspapers are creating news desk portals to handle the increasing barrage of material, and also ease and speed the collection and distribution of material.

•Attracting new readers and subscribers. Newspapers are also using mobiles to attract new subscribers, either targeting them with special offers, or encouraging them to respond and take up free trials.

Another factor is that mobile and wireless technologies will not simply enable human communication. Here, a different range of opportunities exists, such as allowing delivery drivers to avoid traffic jams by tapping into GPS technology.

The data can also be used to identify ongoing blockages and resource capacity.

Allan Marshall is a joint principal of iMedia, Ifra’s joint venture advisory service. He can be contacted at allan.marshall@imediaadvisory.com. This article originally appeared in newspaper techniques, the monthly newspaper production magazine published by Ifra.