Telegraph launches mobile service

Posted by Martin Stabe on 4 August 2008 at 08:00
Tags: Mobile, National Newspapers, New Media

Telegraph Media Group has launched new services for mobile phones.

The service, built using TMG’s new digital publishing and content management system, Escenic, will allow readers to access the Telegraph’s news, sport and travel sections on all major mobile phones.

The group says the move is part of a wider strategy to “offer consumers news when and how they want it”.

The announcement comes just after last month’s redesign of the Telegraph.co.uk website.

Last week, Trinity Mirror announced plans to launch a network of 14 mobile sites across its national and regional newspaper titles.

UCLan research will track movements of local reporters

Posted by Martin Stabe on 20 May 2008 at 10:50
Tags: Broadcast, Mobile, Online, Regional Newspapers

A University of Central Lancashire journalism academic plans to study the movements of local reporters using their mobile phones after winning funding for the research.

“The aim of this project is to map the movement of journalists in the local community by taking reporters from print, radio and TV and providing them with GPS enabled devices to track their movements throughout normal reporting day,” Andy Dickinson writes on his blog.

The research, to be based at UCLAN’s digital media R&D lab Sandbox, will test the idea that members of the local news media might be too physically isolated to be recognised as part of the community, despite news organisations’ stated aim to become part of the local community through interactive elements on their websites.

Lancashire Evening Post preparing live video coverage from pub

Posted by Martin Stabe on 20 May 2008 at 08:30
Tags: Mobile, Online, Regional Newspapers

The Lancashire Evening Post will today report live on its website from a Preston pub for a story about the local pub industry, Journalism.co.uk reports.

LEP.co.uk will use the liveblogging software CoverItLive and the mobile video streaming service Qik for the report at noon today.

Last week, the Liverpool Daily Post used the same tools to provide live coverage of a day in its newsroom, including live video streaming of its news conference.

Liverpool Daily Post begins liveblogging newsroom processes

Posted by Martin Stabe on 13 May 2008 at 11:05
Tags: Mobile, Online, Regional Newspapers

The Liverpool Post has begin a day-long project to reveal its editorial processes online using liveblogging and video streaming tools.

Since 7am, the paper has been using the liveblogging tool CoveritLive to provide updates of what is happening in the newsroom and take comments and questions from readers.

“Today we are giving our readers the opportunity to have a say in setting the news agenda for the Liverpool Daily Post – both in terms of online breaking news throughout the day, and for the following morning’s newspaper,” deputy editor Alison Gow writes in a in a story on the paper’s website.

On her personal blog, Gow elaborates on why the paper is undertaking the project.

“I think we as an industry have got to put aside this air of mystery and preciousness we like to cultivate around the way we allow stories to be told,” she writes.

“There are enough rival mainstream news operatives and quality bloggers on Merseyside sharing information with our potential audience for us to have to look at the way we work; Tuesday is a way of trying to reconnect with past, present (and hopefully future) audience. We’ll test the technology and hopefully change some mindsets - internal and external.|

The Daily Post is also planning to use the microblogging platform Twitter and the live video streaming services Bambuser and Qik to show journalists at work and to live stream its main news conference later today.

CNET launches mobile sites for consumer titles, B2Bs to follow

Posted by Martin Stabe on 8 May 2008 at 12:48
Tags: Magazines, Mobile

CNET Networks UK has launched mobile consumer titles CNET.co.uk and GameSpot UK

The online publisher’s B2B titles, silicon.com and ZDNet.co.uk are slated to follow shortly and its green consumer site SmartPlanet, is set to launch a mobile service later this year.

The mobile sites can be accessed from any internet-enabled mobile phone, can be found at gamespotuk.mobi, zdnet.mobi or by texting MOBI or GAME to 63320.

“The ability to deliver this kind of content has been around for a while, but the UK market is only just reaching the stage where we feel it is a viable proposition; mobile internet is attracting the critical mass market volumes we require and a recent upsurge in mobile advertising demand means that our new sites can offer clients the solutions they need,” said CNET business developement director Geoff Inns in a press release.

CNET partnered with MoMac to build and manage the site, and with Nokia to monetise the sites through the Nokia Media Network, the mobile manufacturer’s mobile ad network. CNET is also working with the mobile portals from Nokia and 3G operator 3 and is in negotiations with other mobile operators’ portals.

ABCe could deliver mobile phone user figures

Posted by Patrick Smith on 1 May 2008 at 10:17
Tags: Media Metrics, Mobile

ABCe, the digital division of the readership measurement service ABC, could soon be publishing web traffic figures from mobile phones.

According to its weekly newsletter the auditing body has been asked by the global mobile operators’ trade association GSMA to help create industry agreed standards.

The move comes after demand from advertisers, media owners and operators who want to grow mobile as an advertising medium.

Labour ‘citizen journalist’ films Boris bus spending admission

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 17 April 2008 at 08:38
Tags: Mobile, New Media, Online

The Labour party has used US-style citizen journalism techniques to record London Mayoral candidate Boris Johnson letting slip that his plans to restore Routemaster buses to would cost £100 million.

He was recorded on a mobile phone by a Ken Livingstone campaigner, the Evening Standard reported.

Lancashire Telegraph launches free SMS news alerts

Posted by Martin Stabe on 31 March 2008 at 10:13
Tags: Mobile, Regional Newspapers

More than 800 people have already subscribed to the free text message news alerts service launched by the Lancashire Telegraph last Wednesday, How-Do reports.

The paper is offering free text alerts for seven local areas and three football clubs as part of a project reportedly being watched closely by parent company Newsquest.

BBC News, Sky News, Guardian, Telegraph are among national news outlets that already offer text alerts, but unlike the Lancashire Telegraph’s new service, these are all paid for by the reader.

Free text services have been used by several news outlets for one-off coverage of major news stories. Earlier this month The Times provided free text message coverage of the budget announcement. The Express & Echo in Exeter used mobile alerts as part of its coverage of a recent rape trial.

Some news outlets, including regional newspapers like the Southport Visiter, are also experimenting with using the mobile microblogging service Twitter to push links to web headlines to mobile users.

Reuters provides real-time mobile news to Indian farmers

Posted by Paul McNally on 30 March 2008 at 12:16
Tags: Journalism, Mobile

Reuters has targeted a new market – India’s 250 million farm workers who crave real-time information on crop prices and weather reports.

The financial news provider has so far signed up 250,000 farmers for the service, delivered by mobile and collated by a team of about 45 local market reporters, according to the Sunday Times.

Reuters Market Light is looking to capitalise on India’s booming mobile phone market. The service costs £2.19 a quarter.

News sites’ online budget day plans: video, graphics, maps, texts and Tweets

Posted by Martin Stabe on 12 March 2008 at 09:48
Tags: Mobile, National Newspapers, Online

Budget Day: With an important news event scheduled to happen at lunchtime, the annual announcement of the Government’s budget has become one of the standard great set-piece news events for online coverage on the national news web sites.

As usual, the websites are planning to roll out new online features for the lunchtime announcement:

• FT.com is promising “instant online coverage” from FT.com. The section includes a discussion forum, budget glossary, a potted history of the last ten budgets and video previews. In the works for after the announcement are a podcast, personal finance editor Matthew Vincent answering readers’ questions and a tax calculator.
• Guardian.co.uk is promising >live video coverage in both its politics and business sections, an expert panel of team of accountants and independent financial advisers answering readers’ questions in a “live money clinic” on the Money blog. A budget podcast is due to be published around 4pm.
• The Press Association has produced a podcast featuring George Jones for news portals MSN and Tiscali, featuring an interview with former Tory Chancellor Ken Clarke. Tiscali will also feature a PA-produced interactive graphic which will be updated live from 12:30. PA is also producing a series of video bulletins for its multimedia clients.
• Sky News will have live streaming analysis called “Budget Unplugged.” users of the microblogging service Twitter to push out alerts to mobiles and instant messenger applications. One Twitter feed will push out the key points from the speech line by line. Another Twitter feed will have real-time analysis, 140 characters at a time. In an interactive Money Worries Map, Sky will attempt to show what the nation expects from the budget based on a survey the channel conducted this weekend. There’s also a tax clinic with Matt Coward of chartered accountants Blick Rothenberg answering readers’ questions
• Telegraph.co.uk will have a live Q&A with experts from Grant Thronton beginning at 12:30. The key points will be online from 12:45. Telegraph writers will add news and comment by 3.30pm and add online calculators from 4pm. Jeff Randall will provide his assessment in a video that should be up at 5.30pm. On the lighter side, there Budget Buzzword Bingo on the Three Line Whip politics blog.
• Times Online plans full coverage in a special budget section has an online quiz about budgets past has a while Times Mobile is offering a live text-mesage updates. To subscribe, text “budget” to 61192.

Investor group urging New York Times to buy digtal

Posted by Martin Stabe on 29 January 2008 at 08:14
Tags: Mobile

A group of investors yesterday urged the New York Times Company to buy digital companies, and sell

An investor coalition, led by Firebrand Partners and hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, holds 4.9 percent of the publishing company and is seeking to elect members to the New York Times board at the next annual meeting.

In a filing to US financial regulators, the group said it planned to make four nominations to the company’s board, particularly individuals with “Internet media” and “capital allocation” experience.

The Independent’s Stephen Foley today writes that the hedge funds’ plans “put The New York Times at the centre of a battle for the future of the newspaper industry“.

Also yesterday, the New York Times announced a free service that allows readers to download the three newest articles from a section of the paper — or the three latest pieces from some columnists — to their mobile phones by sending a text message command.

Sun has 11,000 barcode users

Posted by Martin Stabe on 17 January 2008 at 13:07
Tags: Mobile

The Sun says its new mobile barcode service already has 11,000 users, Mobile Today reports (via MocoNews).

The service allows readers to use their mobile phone to scan over the newspaper, triggering downloads of relevant information to the device.

Exeter paper plans multimedia coverage of rape trial

Posted by Martin Stabe on 10 January 2008 at 10:37
Tags: Journalism, Mobile, Online, Regional Newspapers

The Express and Echo in Exeter is preparing blanket multimedia coverage of a three-week rape trial due to start next Monday, according to Holdthefrontpage.co.uk.

In addition to its newspaper coverage, the Express and Echo plans to cover the trial on its web site, ThisIsExeter, with three reporters providing hourly updates, a daily video at noon and text message alerts.