By JIM JENKS
APSE President

Jim Jenks

For much of the past decade, newspapers have been trying to figure out how to best use their Web sites. Considering the time spent, it is safe to say the return on investment in the Internet has been a disappointment.

Content was surrendered for nothing and Internet ad revenues had been a fraction of what is made on print. The eyeballs are there if registration numbers can be trusted, but the bottom line is the money is not flowing in because of the singular, insignificant revenue stream. Newspapers struggle to enhance their Web products because of competing and dwindling resources with our much larger, more successful and also dwindling print products.

So, where do we go from here?

The answer might be attached to our hip, stuck to our ear or ringing in our pockets.

Cell phones.

More than 34.6 million mobile subscribers in the United States accessed the Internet via their wireless devices during June 2006, according to Telephia, Inc., a supplier of research in communications and new media.

Despite those gaudy numbers, mobile Internet still is in its infancy. It makes sense that someone who frequents the Internet on a desktop or laptop computer would also access the same information on their mobile device, perhaps more often.

And what if you, editor, managing editor or sports editor of Any Size, Any Place newspaper, could text message alerts of significant news directly to subscribing users' cell phones? That is breaking news! Or how about having your newspaper's Web site delivered in a way that it loads quickly and looks sharp on a cell phone screen?

For the past month, I have been preparing for the launch of The Philadelphia Inquirer's new mobile service called Inquirer Sports Extra. The service, which debuted on Sept. 8, includes SMS (short message service) text messaging as well as the WAP (wireless application protocol) Web site designed for the mobile phones. The WAP site is designed to provide a lightweight technology for quicker load times.

It is not Philly.com for the phone, but a unique mobile-based service.

"I am delighted that The Inquirer is the first newspaper in the country to introduce this mobile application that allows newspaper reporters to send live updates directly to subscribers' cell phones," said Brian Tierney, CEO of Philadelphia Media Holdings and publisher of The Inquirer.

Inquirer Sports Extra currently provides news of the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers and Penn State with categories for breaking news, injuries, lead stories and columns. The plan is to expand and adjust to content to the users' needs.

While sports was the perfect content offering with which to launch, what is next?

"We will be giving our subscribers more control over the kind of information they get from us," said Chris Mills, the Inquirer deputy manager editor for new media. "For example, a Phillies fan may not want text-message alerts on the Flyers. We want to enable that fan to limit what they want to receive.

"Beyond that, we want to expand the broader menu of Inquirer mobile offerings to include local news, business, and database information such as movies, food and concert information."

The Inquirer's mobile service has huge potential in the regional marketplace, being delivered by major carriers Verizon, Cingular, Sprint/Nextel and T-Mobile through a third-party partner, Verve Wireless.

According to an Aug. 29 story on CNET News.com, those major mobile carriers generated more than $6.3 billion in domestic wireless data services for the first half of 2006 and most of that was consumer messaging. With that kind of saturation comes certain dual revenue streams, something almost all of the newspaper Web sites have never been able to accomplish.

The first revenue opportunity comes from subscriptions. The Inquirer site is being sold at a base price of $2.99 per month with discounts coming for existing subscribers (99 cents per month) and first-time subscribers (free for eight weeks, then 99 cents).

The second revenue stream, not in place for launch at The Inquirer, will be advertising on the WAP site and in individual SMS alerts.

The Inquirer is not alone on the mobile landscape. USA Today and its Gannett family have developed a two-way text messaging service in which the user requests specific information with an SMS message and then receives a subsequent message with the answer. The New York Times and Washington Post advertise for mobile versions of their Web sites.

No media source can cover the local scene better than newspapers, which have a chance to be the leaders in mobile publishing and not the slow-moving followers they were when it came to the Web boom of the mid-90s.

The next wave of the future has arrived. Let's hope that the newspaper industry gets it right this time.

• • •

Jim Jenks is the Sports Editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. You can reach him at (215) 854-4545 or via e-mail at jjenks@phillynews.com.

 Back to index