Newspapers Go Mobile
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Japan ranked top for the number of users of broadband Internet services via mobile phone in 2005. The number of mobile broadband Internet service subscribers totaled 17.79 million in Japan in 2005, followed by 12.53 million in South Korea and 10.26 million in Italy. (U.N.).
About two billion people worldwide are now hooked on to a mobile phone, according to the United Nations, and the technology is taking over. Personal digital technology was expanding at a revolutionary pace and could have a pervasive impact on people’s lives.
Google has criticised mobile phone operators for trying to prevent their users from accessing Internet applications. Operators have lobbied the search giant, asking it to stop people from accessing Google Mobile Maps.
Newspaper owners using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) for their forward strategic planning certainly should have regarded the Web (Internet) as a threat. This has indeed been how things have turned out.
It is often the case where some see threats, others may seize opportunities. In this case the opportunity is perhaps presented by the Mobile Web rather than the traditional Web. Since the Mobile Web is growing faster than the traditional Web, this would seem to be a promising situation. McLean-based newspaper giant Gannett, owner of the Fort Myers News-Press, seems to be seizing this opportunity. It now has a fleet of mobile journalists, or “mojos“. The mojos spend their time on the road looking for stories, filing several a day for the newspaper’s Web site, and often for the print edition, too. They create a constantly updated stream of intensely local, fresh Web content/ The mojos have high-tech tools — ThinkPads, digital audio recorders, digital still and video cameras — but no land line and no office.
Gannett’s papers focus on the Web first, newspaper second. They are slashing national and foreign coverage and beefing up “hyper-local,” street-by-street news. It is trying everything it can think of to create Web sites that will attract more readers. Let’s hope they can mine this opportunity.
Tags: Mobile, newspapers
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