Are mobile services at last becoming a viable revenue stream for the newspaper industry?

A number of factors are driving this. The first is the extraordinary development in devices. The iPhone, for example, is spectacular, and what strikes me most about it is how everyone who has one has to show off their Internet access, something that many other phones could do, but tended not to.

The interface truly encourages innovative usage. And other manufacturers are rapidly gearing up to compete.

Another is the ubiquity of wireless and its linkage to mobile devices. This is not only enabling users to access the Internet free — bypassing the still expensive mobile networks — but also induces mobile telcos to reduce their prices to more reasonable levels.

Look at the countries where mobile technology has really taken off — Japan, South Korea and Norway. The common feature is low pricing. Inexpensive access directly correlates to explosive growth.

What does this meant to newspapers? I believe that publishers will find mobile a far bigger proposition than their current menu of Internet services.

Why?

Because mobile is the next newspaper medium. Mobile is available on the move, in proximity and in context. It’s a digital medium for the street, transport, work and home.

But to tap into it, publishers have to realize that the mobile medium is different and that its use and content are different. Mobile is not about detail. It’s about instant gratification. It’s about communication, and increasingly, it is a multimedia experience.

New communities

Yes, some newspapers are successfully transmitting content to mobile users, but this is not where the main opportunities lie. Instead, it’s users transmitting content to newspaper Web sites — messages, images, videos and comments.

Using this content as a foundation, newspapers are now establishing mini-audiences based around shared communities of interest or geography, in the process enabling their customers to share information or hyper-local news with their neighbors, communities or interest group.

And don’t forget that mobile is an excellent revenue generator for digital classified listings.

How? By setting up a system that proactively notifies readers when a requested item, or job, or home, becomes available. A newspaper can collect a small fee every time it connects the seller and the buyer.

Cell-to-Web marketing

Meantime, European newspapers say they are getting a blossoming response from cell phone-to-Web marketing programs.

Editor’s note: Goss International Corp. just recently announced it’s evaluating such a service in the United States. The service, GossRSVP, had its initial test-run with Foster’s Daily Democrat in Dover, N.H. (See page 6.)

Cell-to-Web marketing programs usually use a printed barcode, or some other visual image, that cell phone users can interact with, either by snapping a picture of the image or text-messaging a specific request about a particular product.

Advertisers then send back information about their product or service directly to the user’s mobile device.

Mobile’s portability is another advantage newspapers should capitalize upon.

Here’s an example: While shopping at a mall one day recently, I received a message on my cell phone alerting me to a sale at a men’s store located at the center.

That is what you would call an advertising message that was demographically as well as geographically targeted.

Mobile also brings with it benefits in a newspaper’s own operation.

Using smartphones, photojournalists can send pictures, videos and interviews back to the office as they are being recorded. Distribution systems are more efficient and more effective through the use of GPS and other technologies. Mobile devices are being attached to copy-counters, barcode readers and even newspaper vending machines to send instant notification of sales activity.

Exploiting mobile means that newspapers must now be ready to expand on their historical legacy of bringing writers and readers together. Today, papers must bring readers and readers together, as well as buyers and sellers. And if we don’t do it, someone else will. At our expense.

Jim Chisholm is joint principal of iMedia, Ifra’s joint venture advisory service. He can be reached at jim.chisholm@imediaadvisory.com.