Mobile Strategies: Hit The Mark With

Publishers Playbook
MOBILE STRATEGIES
How to get big results on the little screen
Hit the mark with
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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies
CONTENTS
The iPhone and other mobile platforms offer a great opportunity for media brands to engage with their audience and deliver a personalized experience. But deciding on the right approach for design, content development and delivery is no easy task. Here are some resources to help you figure it all out.
4 8
How to create a mobile news or magazine site
5 things your iPhone developer wants you to know
12 15 18
In frenzy over mobile apps, dont forget the mobile web
Scribd reaches out to publishers with free HTML5 conversion
23 28 32
Mobile advertisings moving targets
Mobile contentlike writing for the web, only more so
Which mobile platform should you focus on?
Mobile web resources

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CEOS MESSAGE
Statistics are indicating that audiences are now more than ever choosing smart phones as the way to experience content on the Web. As Harald Neidhardt, co-founder and CMO of mobile agency Smaato said, If you dont have a mobile presence in 18 months, youre out of business. Thats why a mobile strategy should be on the forefront of every publishers mind. But navigating (nevermind profiting from) this new terrain can be intimidating to publishers who do not have the tools and information necessary to get their brand mobile ready. Thats why weve created the Publishers Playbook to Mobile. Smart phones, like the iPhone and the Android, offer platforms that deliver the experience everyone is seeking: a personalized one. So how can you translate your publication to the little screen with a big impact? Well guide you through the necessary steps for making your brand mobile friendly, give you an inside scoop in to the mind of an application developer, examine the benefits of going beyond the app and creating a mobile site, and study the companies who seem to be doing it right.
Prescott Shibles CEO
As with all the changes the publishing industry is undergoing, there is no exact formula to success in the mobile environment. But considering the personalized content audiences are looking for, a personalized approach to your mobile ventures is a smart way to begin thinking about your new investment. While reading this guide, think about what makes your publication stand apart from its competitors and start brainstorming about the ways you can make that specialized experience convenient for your mobile users. We hope you find this content valuable and invite you to share your own Mobile intelligence
with your peers.
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HOW TO CREATE A MOBILE NEWS OR MAGAZINE SITE

BY PRESCOTT SHIBLES
With such an explosion of growth due to the rise of the iPhone, iPad and other smart phones, media companies face a multitude of questions about their position on the little screen. Does your site live up to your brands reputation when being viewed on a mobile phone? Does it have the necessary components to help you execute your paid content or advertising strategies? If your site renders the same way on a mobile phone as it does on a desktop, the answer to both of these questions is NO and you need to begin developing a more robust mobile offering. Here are the basics behind developing a mobile version of your site.
Use subdomain instead of .mobi

One of the problems with registering a separate domain name for your mobile site is that you might not be able to register the same letter combination of your Web site (emediavitals.com vs. emediavitals.mobi). Someone may have already bought it already, etc. However, using a subdomain (mobile.emediavitals.com) maintains brand continuity while still helping users find your mobile content easily.
Browser detection
Most users will type in your regular sites URL into their browser. So, its important that whatever solution you come up with addresses this user behavior instead of trying to
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HOW TO CREATE A MOBILE NEWS OR MAGAZINE SITE contd
change it. Many sites use advanced browser detection capabilities such as those provided by Browscap to redirect users to their mobile offering or serve up a mobile skin in lieu of their standard design.
Homepage content
With the mechanics now out of the way, lets talk about how the user interacts with your site. First off, remember that while 3G technologies have increased the browsing speeds of mobile phones, they remain significantly slower than DSL, cable, or T1 connections. So, you need to limit the amount of content on the homepage while still making it easy to find what a reader is looking for: Recent articles (CNN) Navigation to topic/category areas (ESPN) Coupons / Discounts (Daily Candy)
Mobile design
Remember that the mobile world is still a bit of the Wild, Wild, West when compared to the Web proper. There are tons of mobile operating systems, browsers, and other variables that need to be considered before developing a design. Smashing magazine has a great piece on designing for mobile devices. Rather than re-hash their points here, Id recommend heading over there to read up on design.
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Measuring your mobile traffic

While you can use your standard Web analytics package to track the standard metrics, there are some other more specialized offerings that you might want to consider: AdMob: Gain greater insight into the phones and browsers used to access your mobile site. PercentMobile: Create mashups of data that you get from your mobile usage.
Management buy-in and getting started

One of the challenges youll face is managements mandate to keep expenses in line and limit projects to key initiatives. Theyll likely look at this project and question its validity. Develop specific goals for the project that are tangible and reachable. Arm yourself with the numbers, understand your strategy, and talk to your users and readers. Listen to how Variety incorporated user feedback to develop and then improve their mobile presence. Then tie all of that together into a few scenarios: 1. Get the ideal mobile site up with the bells and whistles. Youve got a paid content game plan and an advertising game plan. This is a straw man to basically get ripped apart by the execs so that they dont immediately trash the more realistic option. If they actually green light it, then you know you have some good ideas that are worth pursuing.
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2. Get some type of mobile site up. They theory here is to get something up that requires little development expense but positions your brand to grow its reader engagement on mobile devices. Maybe you sell some ads, maybe you dont. Maybe you get some feedback on the pricing of your app. 3. No mobile initiative. Show the downside of missing this opportunity. The growth in this sector cannot be ignored. Make it specific to your brand and your industry. Develop a prototype using outside technology such as MobiSiteGalore. It doesnt require development skills, and it can easily provide a proof of concept. Take this prototype to management to demonstrate that the project doesnt require much investment and to your readers to get their feedback before your offering goes live. Finally, look at your stats and continuously identify areas for improvement. The nice thing about an initiative like this is that it isnt labor-intensive post-launch, which means you are free to invest your time in improving the product by monitoring user behavior. As you monitor your performance, report up to management how you are doing relative to the goals that you set out. In addition, point out other unanticipated benefits and factor those into the ROI analysis that you do.
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5 THINGS YOUR IPHONE DEVELOPER WANTS YOU TO KNOW

BY SEAN BLANDA
In the burgeoning world of iPhone application development, Socialbomb can be considered a veteran. The studios cofounder, Scott Varland, has been knee-deep in iPhone app development since 2008 when SocialBomb was one of the first developers accepted into the companys SDK program, which makes Socialbomb about as experienced as one studio can be in the iPhone space. We asked Varland, 31, who constantly receives pitches for new apps, about the nitty-gritty of iPhone app development and how media companies can better work with independent contractors. Here was his advice:
Do you really need an iPhone app?

The first thing you need to ask, said Varland, is do you even need an iPhone app? Would a mobile website suffice? The iPhone is a unique platform featuring a touch-interface, a gyroscope, a compass and GPS. If your application doesnt take advantage of some or all of those features, then the better, more cost-efficient route is to optimize existing content to be viewed on the iPhones web browser (or, at the very least, create an iPhone-friendly icon).
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5 THINGS YOUR IPHONE DEVELOPER WANTS YOU TO KNOW contd
Serious iPhone application development can reach the mid-five figures and take months. Unless you are willing to invest in something useful and innovative, stay clear.
Do one thing well and figure it out early.

Early in the planning stage for your app, identify one feature that you would like to focus on and carry that throughout the process. The most popular iPhone apps typically have a single purpose. The New York Times app, for example, simplifies the process of reading the paper online. Flashlight turns your phone into an emergency light. I am T-Pain, well, makes you sound like the rapper T-Pain. Your interaction with your iPhone is maybe 30 seconds, tops, said Varland The more you bury information with your app, the less likely people are to use it. While your website may have dozens of features that can be translated to mobile, do not try to pack them all into a single app. Trying to do it all can place unnecessary stress on the development team and make it difficult for users to see the value in your product. If you cant easily state the usefulness of your application to the user, it may be time to go back to the drawing board.
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Leverage your existing data

If you have any existing databases, your iPhone application may already be halfway completed. For example, the Weather application on the iPhone searches Yahoos database of weather forecasts. The application just optimizes the data for the iPhone. Dig through your publication. Do you already have some sort of content database that can
If you have any existing databases, your iPhone application may already be halfway completed
fuel your application in a similar fashion? To streamline the process, be sure to provide your developer with all of the databases you plan on using and demonstrate how they can access the information stored there.
Be aware of the size of the team you are working with

In most cases, studios accepting client work will likely be one- to two-person teams that will be focused on coding the application. To speed the process, Varland recommends producing a function specification document that plots your application in as much detail as possible. Utilize your Web team to produce wire frames, the goal for the application and the source of all of the applications data. You can even flowchart the navigation and design some rough images.
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Document what the interface does. What is the user experience? What does each button do? What does data does it connect to? Varland said. If you are dealing with a larger studio with more staff, you may be able to offload some of the spec development to them.
Determine if you even need an outside team

For those seeking iPhone developers, there is a bit of a catch-22. Most top talent will either prefer to pursue their own ideas, or will be snapped up by larger companies for in-house staff. If youre making an app just to make it, contract it out to India. If you are looking at this as a major part of your business going forward, you really need to be out there hiring and training in-house, said Varland. Socialbombs first application, Paparazzi, was released in March 2009 and the studio has subsequently launched a large-scale Facebook app for Fisher-Price.
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IN FRENZY OVER MOBILE APPS, DONT FORGET THE MOBILE WEB

BY DEREK SLATER
Mobile apps are getting all the buzz, but theres still plenty of life and advertising opportunities in mobile websites. That was the consensus from panelists at the Magazine Mobile Imperative luncheon sponsored by the Magazine Publishers of America and eMedia Vitals. Although the market for mobile applications is taking off, the mobile Web offers more scale and is evolving as a cross-platform solution for publishers to provide content to mobile users, said Craig Ettinger, vice president of marketing and business operations for Time.com. Time.com averages about 500,000 unique visitors a month to its mobile-enabled WAP (wireless access protocol) site, which it launched in September 2006. New developments such as HTML5 and 4G wireless will dramatically improve the mobile Web experience, enabling functionality similar to dedicated apps that take advantage of native functionality such as location services, Ettinger said. Were probably six months to a year away from having great, great, rich mobile Web experiences, and again the beauty of that is cross-device, cross-platform, he said. The scale is already there. In addition to cross-device support and scale, WAP sites are easier to maintain and iterate than apps and offer streamlined reporting because they can be integrated with standard website analytics.
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IN FRENZY OVER MOBILE APPS, DONT FORGET THE MOBILE WEB contd
Monetizing mobile banners

WAP sites also offer benefits for advertisers. Because of the scale, banner ads can be served to virtually all modern mobile devices, said Pooja Midha, vice president of business development for MTV Networks Digital. MTVN uses a lot of 300-by-250 formats for its mobile creative; since advertisers already produce this inventory for other digital campaigns, its relatively easy to repurpose for mobile
Were probably six months to a year away from having great, great, rich mobile Web experiences
devices. But the smaller screen sizes has also forced MTVN to get more creative with its creative, introducing formats such as iPhone floaters, which include motion graphics that appear over a newly loaded page for two to three seconds before shrinking back to a traditional banner. A recent Sims3 campaign with Comedy Central and other MTVN sites featured Sims characters that popped out of the banner to steal the sites logo. The campaign achieved an impressive 24% clickthrough rate at launch and a 17-18% click-through for the duration of the campaign. Another type is the screen-smasher unit, in which the ad comes crashing through the screen (a Javascript animation), simulating a cracked display. The graphic then retreats into
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IN FRENZY OVER MOBILE APPS, DONT FORGET THE MOBILE WEB contd
a call to action. Midha said a recent screen smasher campaign with the U.S. Air Force generated click-through rates of 9-10%. The key to successful WAP advertising, said Midha, is creating ad formats and experiences that lean into what users are already seeking and doing with the MTVN content. Dont bombard the user. Enhance it for them, she said. Our strategy is to do a little bit of everything but make it about the fan first. She said WAP banners have advantages, such as being cost-effective and universally available on any device, as well as providing scale and a solid metric for success in clickthrough rates. But on the downside, WAP banners are also a competitive space that is somewhat commoditized because of the rise of ad networks. Its challenging for us to explain why a banner on our site is that much more impactful than a banner on another site thats another premium publisher, she said.
Dont bombard the user. Enhance it for them
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SCRIBD REACHES OUT TO PUBLISHERS WITH FREE HTML5 CONVERSION

BY ELLIE BEHLING
Maybe you want to make your magazine HTML5-compatible for the iPad, but you dont yet have the resources to develop a custom app. The document-sharing site Scribd offers one solution: Publishers can upload PDFs or other digital files of their magazine content and Scribd will convert them to an HTML5 format viewable through Scribds reader. Its a simple solution, and one that might fall short for publishers seeking a more robust iPad application. But Scribds free service is one alternative for publishers to make their content more mobile while offering some basic interactivity such as links. Scribd is making a transition to HTML5 from Flash, which required viewers on mobile devices to download documents via PDF. Scribds switchover to HTML5 is designed to create a better mobile reading experience as more people consume content that way, says Tammy H. Nam, vice president of content and marketing at Scribd. For publishers, Nam says using Scribd is an opportunity to provide content on mobile devices with zero cost, rather than spending a lot of money developing an app. What [publishers are] doing right now is creating very specialized applications for these mobile platforms, and the return on their investment is probably questionable, at least in the near term, Nam says. With Scribd they can essentially upload their content that they already have without having to do any extra time or effort.
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SCRIBD REACHES OUT TO PUBLISHERS WITH FREE HTML5 CONVERSION contd
One of Scribds first big media customers is Forbes, which offered its special issue about Warren Buffet first for free via Scribd. This is an issue they had already compiled, Nam says. The only thing they had to do was upload it. While Forbes is partnering with Scribd, the publisher is also considering other platforms and pursuing the development of an app, according to paidContent. Scribd plans to develop its own apps for the iPad, iPhone and Android, Nam says. The
Using Scribd is an opportunity to provide content on mobile devices with zero cost, rather than spending a lot of money developing an app
company is also working on adding support for audio and video as well as the ability for conversion to an ePUB format. Nam points out that multimedia capabilities will also allow for more interactive advertising. Theres another potentially interesting development in the works at Scribd: Nam says the site will be offering alternative revenue models for publishers in the next couple of months, though Scribd isnt detailing them yet. Under the current system, a publisher on Scribd can choose to give away content for free or sell it (forking over a 20% cut to Scribd). The catch is that the commerce side of Scribd isnt yet in HTML5, but Nam says they will be enabling it soon. Scribd hopes to become a place for publishers to experiment with different revenue models for mobile content. Our goal with media companies is to give them revenuemaking opportunities, and shortly well be able to present them with multiple options to making money to offer content, Nam says. HTML5 goes a long way in helping to make that happen because the technology itself is so open and its readily available on any mobile device ... They dont have to do anything and its immediate distribution across all platforms.
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SCRIBD REACHES OUT TO PUBLISHERS WITH FREE HTML5 CONVERSION contd
Nam says shes seen a surge in media companies using Scribd for a variety of purposes. Right now 150 media companies publish content to the site, oftentimes consisting of source material, such as court documents (which are now also in HTML5). Others are using Scribd to upload entire issues (e.g. Forbes) or for supplemental content, such as USA TODAYs education issue. The social aspect of Scribd may be another appeal to media companies. Scribd bills itself as a social publishing site, allowing users to easily share content across their social networks. The college-focused, subscription-based magazine Saturday Night, for example, offers free content on Scribd to target an audience of readers that want content on their mobile devices and interact via social media. Theyre sharing what theyre reading on Scribd with their friends on Facebook and Twitter, Nam says. Theres a lot of viral discussions going on. According to Nam, social engagement has more than tripled since the conversion to HTML5.
Scribd bills itself as a social publishing site, allowing users to easily share content across their social networks
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MOBILE CONTENTLIKE WRITING FOR THE WEB, ONLY MORE SO

BY MITCH SPEERS
Its a given that you need a mobile version of your website in order to deliver a good user experience on a mobile phone. But does the content itself need to be tweaked as well? You bet it does. Assuming you have a mobile version of your site, cant you just strip out the graphics, images, PDFs and flash and call it a day? If you want to make your content useful on a mobile device, youll need to do more. Here are 5 factors to consider for publishing to mobile platforms: 1. Easy to use/scan/understand: Simple wins on the small screen 2. Concise: Get to the point, fast. Dont ramble. Publish robust summaries with links 3. High value or time-sensitive content: Data, actionable information, tools and news 4. Search optimized: Its how people find content on mobile 5. Easy to move cross-platform: Adding a prominent email this link is one way Jakob Nielsen summarizes the differences in writing style for print vs. web: Particularly on commercial sites whether theyre B2C e-commerce or specialized B-to-B sites users cherry-pick the information and concentrate narrowly on what they want. If youre smart, youll write accordingly: make your content actionable and focused on user needs.
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MOBILE CONTENTLIKE WRITING FOR THE WEB, ONLY MORE SO contd
Mobile content should be even more actionable (data, not anecdotes) and focused on user needs (scannable, hyper-concise, fast-loading, and/or entertaining). Some examples:
Apartment Guide Mobile--a magazine thats a directory is well-suited to mobile http://m.paidcontent.org is fast, highly readable, easy to navigate on a phone. http://mobile.nytimes.com is an excellent mobile site. I think its actually better than the
Users cherry-pick the information and concentrate narrowly on what they want
NY Times iPhone app. Unfortunately, good mobile versions of magazine websites are scarce. Car and Driver touts its mobile site, but the usability is terrible. Variety shows a great approach to modifying its content for mobile in an iPhone app. Paul Conley had this to say about the potential of mobile content: Mobile devices offer the first opportunity in history to create content that is aimed at individual users. With mobile, youre not publishing restaurant reviews for your community -- youre giving the guy at the corner of Main and State three options for health food within a six-block radius. Youre not giving the executive at the airport an interface where he can check his flight, youre sending him a text message when the airline changes his gate.
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Should all your content be available to mobile users?

Ideally youll think through what users are most likely going to want to access on their mobile devices. Asking your readers what they want would be a good idea. News content is well suited to mobile, as is any content that is constantly updated. Fewer mobile users will read a 2,000-word interview all the way through. A summary paragraph with bulleted key points and a link to the full text may get traction.
Mobile devices offer the first opportunity in history to create content that is aimed at individual users
What about non-editorial content?

You probably publish more than editorial content. If you have a directory, a data product, a specialty calculator or anything that lends itself to away-from-the-computer use, youd do well to focus your initial efforts there. Some examples: The Chemical Touch (iPhone App) is a touch-sensitive periodic table of the elements that brings up a chemistry-textbooks worth of information for the element selected. US Elections (iPhone App) is a database of every U.S. presidential election, with details about candidates, electoral votes, states carried, popular votes, percentages and more.
Theres an app for that

If you have the resources, and your content or data is in demand, you should consider developing dedicated iPhone, Blackberry or Android apps for them. Well-designed apps like this are often an improvement over the same tool used in a mobile browser.
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Wall Street Journal mobile edition (m.wsj.com) is a decent mobile website, but the WSJ Reader for Blackberry automatically pushes updates to your Blackberry that you can access offline. Deciding which platform to build an app for is a function of your audience. If youre trying to reach the financial industry, Blackberry is a good bet, though Bloombergs iPhone app is well regarded. For consumer markets, iPhone or Android platforms deserve a look. Silicon Alley Insider has some useful tips for those considering whether to build an iPhone app.
Video and podcasts

Video can work on some mobile platforms, but bandwidth limitations are still a barrier. For iPhones and Android phones, publishing video to YouTube is a good solution. For other platforms, its going to be trial and error. For example, Verizon V CAST is a service add-on for about 35 Verizon phones, but to publish video to this service, you need to negotiate with Verizon. Good luck with that. Other phones seem to support downloading, converting and then playing video, such as video podcasts, but not easy playback of video direct from a website. Audio podcasts are a lot simpler than video to execute, and are a natural for many mobile devices. Flash animation is generally a bad idea, as is PDF.
SEO is still critical

If your editorial is well optimized for search with an emphasis on keywords, descriptive (not clever) titles, headlines and headings, then it will be well-positioned for mobile SEO as well. Mobile users are heavily dependent on search, so SEO is critical.
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Staffing issues
Tweaking and trimming content for mobile shouldnt really need dedicated staff. It can (and should) be part of the workflow of posting an article in the content management system. The editor who produced the original piece is best equipped to boil it down for mobile use, if necessary. Developing mobile apps to expose data products, calculators and the like will probably require hiring an outside developer. Most media companies dont yet have iPhone, Android or Blackberry developers on staff, nor should they.
Augmented realitythe future?

The web allows content to be more useful and accessible than print, some in ways that could not be imagined 20 years ago. Content, in the form of actionable information and tools, is being made even more useful on mobile platforms. One fascinating development is augmented reality, or the ability to superimpose information in a layer over reality. Typically they use the phones camera, GPS location data and some kind of image recognition processing to provide a layer of information on top of the camera view of wherever you are. There are some AR apps for Android and iPhones now, and they are very cool. The Economist did a good write-up on AR recently thats worth reading. The Layar Reality Browser is a good example of an early AR mobile app.
Mobile means more meat, less fat

Small phone screens and keyboards will continue to force publishers to trim all nonessential words, sentences and images. The real power of the mobile phone as a platform is that it knows who you are and where you are. Using that power effectively will lead to mobile content breakthroughs that will set your brand apart.
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MOBILE ADVERTISINGS MOVING TARGETS

BY ROB OREGAN
Monetizing mobile content isnt just about deciding how much to charge for your iPhone app despite the overabundance of punditry on that point. Mobile advertising models are evolving almost as rapidly as the mobile devices themselves. The question for newspaper and magazine publishers is, How many of these ad dollars can you capture? The expected growth of the mobile market makes this an increasingly urgent issue. Irish researcher Research and Markets is forecasting a 37 percent compound annual growth rate for mobile advertising revenues through 2015. The challenge for publishers is fighting for a cut of those revenues among the device makers, wireless service providers, digital stores and yes, the advertisers themselves, which view mobile as an important channel for making direct connections with a target audience using their own content. In some ways, publishers will be competing with advertisers on the content creation experience, says Ned May, a director and lead analyst with market researcher Outsell. Every time a brand creates a great app, thats taking a users attention and time from other media. Because the role of newspapers and magazines in connecting consumers and advertisers is less defined in the mobile space than it is in the print or even the PC-based Web worlds, publishers that wait to see how the mobile landscape takes shape may be left out of the mix altogether.
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MOBILE ADVERTISINGS MOVING TARGETS contd
Here are three of the biggest moving targets in the mobile advertising space. The more publishers educate themselves about these key elements, the better theyll be able to develop a mobile experience that serves both the audience and the advertisers.
1. The devices
The category of mobile devices continues to evolve, from dumb phones (voice and text only) to Web-enabled smartphones to larger e-readers. In a recent report authored by May (Device Wars: Whats a Publisher to Do with Smartphones, E-Readers, and Tablets?), Outsell further distinguishes between e-readers and tablets: e-readers are single-function devices for the acquisition and display of content primarily book content, while tablets are small computing devices [including netbooks] capable of being loaded with sophisticated applications and communicating primarily via data networks. These devices may or may not have a dedicated keyboard for input and their display is typically a color screen and is increasingly one that can handle touch input. The differences go well beyond the size, shape and functionality of the devices, because consumers interact with content differently on each device. Understanding how they interact is critical for both content creators and advertisers. Heres how May distinguishes usability among the three types: Smartphones are for sips of content. E-readers are about immersive reading, where people are not looking for distractions i.e., advertising. The iPad and other tablets, by comparison, will be much more purposeful for users. Users will pick up a tablet to accomplish something, not just browsing or playing with a cool new app. That speaks to bigger experiences, which suit publishers better.
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2. The creative
Because the three categories of devices are used for different purposes, the ads delivered through those devices will be different as well. In his report, Day describes the different advertising opportunities emerging for the three devices types: Smartphones will leverage ads that take advantage of knowing the users location, the primary task she is engaged in, and her ability to remain connected. E-readers will be suited to contextual advertising, similar to the Amazon model (If you like this, youll also like this). Tablets offer opportunities for advertisers to potentially invest more resources designing their own applications that reside on the device rather than buying search and display campaigns. For this new generation of large-screen tablets, the key for publishers is finding more ways to integrate their advertising partners into the richer content experiences they offer. Apples forthcoming iAd platform could help by providing a means to embed interactive ads that dont take the user away from the publishers app environment. Skiff, the Hearst-backed venture that is developing a new e-reading platform and e-reader hardware, is taking a different approach. The initial emphasis of its service, due later this year, is to help publishers preserve the traditional newspaper or magazine reading experience including the display ads.
Apples iAd platform could help by providing a means to embed interactive ads that dont take the user away from the publishers app environment.
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Ads that are reminiscent of print are a more powerful, better way of reaching consumers than the more Internet-centric models, says Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, Skiffs chief marketing officer. The emphasis will be more around visual display, and the impact that has, so the advertisers that are currently spending billions on print advertising will be able to preserve those investments. For smaller-screen smartphones, publishers have a broad array of inventory types to choose from, ranging from text-based ads to expanding banners. The Internet Advertising Bureau lists the various inventory types in its Mobile Buyers Guide. Sponsorships are also growing in appeal, especially for apps. Financial Times iPad app, for example, is sponsored by Hublot, a watchmaker, which is subsidized free access to the subscription-based FT.com site for two months. For many publishers, sponsorships are a better alternative than intrusive display ads. They also open up opportunities for deeper, more lucrative relationships with advertisers. The key to attracting these sponsors, of course, is through compelling content and a large and/or loyal audience. It always comes back to the content.
3. The metrics
The biggest gap in the mobile space for publishers and advertisers remains a standard set of metrics. Publishers need compelling audience quality metrics to attract advertisers and compelling engagement metrics to demonstrate the success of mobile campaigns.
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Unfortunately, theres no agreement as to what those metrics should be. This is a good news/bad news scenario for publishers. If anything, the launch of new networks like iAd muddies the waters even more. The good news is that mobile devices can return all kinds of data about whos consuming your content, how theyre accessing it and how theyre interacting with it. The bad news is that carriers and some platform vendors (like Apple and Amazon) are reluctant to share subscriber information with content or publishing partners. Throw in privacy concerns and a woeful lack of mobile measurement standards and you have quite the hornets nest. Theres some movement toward open platforms and standard metrics. Skiff is working with Nielsen and comScore, for example, on new metrics to measure the effectiveness of mobile advertising. Without going into specifics, Van Rensselaer said the goal is to deliver fairly quantitative measures of subscribers behavior with publications offered through the Skiff service, including the time spent on a page. He added that Skiff plans to share that information with publishers as part of its publisher friendly approach.
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WHICH MOBILE PLATFORM SHOULD YOU FOCUS ON?

BY MITCH SPEERS
With five major mobile platforms in the US market, where should publishers place their bets? Here is some data to help you make the right decision. Of course, before you invest in building mobile apps, you should ensure your website is optimized for mobile browsers. If users have a good experience using your site from their phone, they are more likely to consider downloading your smartphone app. First, look at the US market share for each of the major smartphone platforms according to Comscore research released April 5, 2010: RIM, maker of the Blackberry, still has a commanding lead in smartphones in the US, with 42.1% market share for the 3-month period ending February 2010, according to ComScore. Blackberry is the platform of choice for corporate IT departments, so they are more likely to be in the hands of corporate managers. The biggest gainer in this list is Googles Android platform, while both Palm and Microsoft have seen pretty steep drops over the past 6 months.
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WHICH MOBILE PLATFORM SHOULD YOU FOCUS ON? contd
So, if you were to base your decision on handset market share, your priorities would be pretty clear. However, market share alone does not paint the full picture. The Apple iPhone is the platform that really gave the mobile application space mainstream appeal. The iTunes app store is the largest and most profitable of its kind by a wide margin. The numbers are important not for their sheer size, but for what they say about how each platform is used. The iPhone gets used as much more than a phone. The Blackberry is a phone/email device with a browser. The others are trying hard to beat Apple at its own cool multifunctional mobile device game. Sources: 1. RIM/Blackberry webstore 2. 148apps iPhone app store stats 3. Windows Phone marketplace 4. AndroLib.com Android app fan site 5. Pre Central community site These numbers are so large as to be almost meaningless to an app consumer. Nevertheless, they do emphasize the relative health of each platforms app ecosystem, and by that measure, Apple is the 800-pound gorilla.
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There are now several paths to in-app advertising launched or nearly ready to launch. If your advertisers want high-impact, rich media ads in the mobile channel, these new mobile ad providers are set to deliver, at least on Apple iPhone and Android. So, how can we project the future? One good indicator of future performance is developer support. If developers see promise in a platform, they will write applications for it, especially if the hardware support is there. Over 30,000 developers use Appcelerator app development tools, and a survey of 1028 (really) of these developers in late March 2010 gives a good indication of the attitudes towards these mobile platforms. The Apple iPhone is still the platform most developers have interest in creating apps for. The Apple platform is popular because it has strong consumer acceptance and developers know you can make money from it. Palms recent financial difficulties have dampened developer interest. There are really no compelling reasons to invest in Palm-specific apps for publishers.
(Source: Appcelerator survey March 23-25 2010)
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Developer interest in RIM and Microsoft has surged as both companies have made it easier (with better APIs) for developers to create new mobile applications. In addition, Blackberry makes it a point to accommodate carriers, in stark contrast to Apple. Android is the one to really watch in this race. Googles strategy to beat Apple makes a lot of sense. They will continue to offer decent (if not stunning) alternatives to the iPhone, but be available across all carriers, in many varieties, and usually at a lower price. Most importantly, Googles purchase of AdMob positions them to be a significant player in in mobile advertising. The next big battlefield is for enterprise customers. Apple hasnt shown a lot of appetite for this market in any of its product lines. RIM has built its success almost exclusively on the enterprise. Google is pushing hard on several fronts to be a heavy hitter in enterprise software, and Android is likely to pull share away from both RIM and Apple in this market. So, if your audience is largely corporate managers in medium to large enterprises, placing bets Googles Android probably makes a lot of sense. RIM is huge in the enterprise, but their app strategy, particularly in-app advertising, looks less-developed. Microsoft, like RIM, has great enterprise penetration, and their new push to woo developers could reverse their slide, but Apple has managed to make Microsoft something of a joke in mobile devices to date. If your focus is consumers, Apple and Android are your top choices. The mobile landscape is changing very quickly, so it pays to have someone in your organization responsible for staying abreast of the technology and the major players. You need to be here.
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MOBILE WEB RESOURCES

How to create your first iPhone application
The iPhone has created unprecedented excitement and innovation. Still, for those outside the development world, the process of developing iPhone apps is a bit of a mystery. This how-to guide walks you through the steps to make your idea for an iPhone app a reality. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/11/how-to-create-your-first-iphone-application/
Mobile app or mobile website?

Before you invest in mobile marketing, consider your audience and the startup costs. http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingideas/article205856.html
5 cant miss usability tips for mobile website designs

A few simple yet prominent steps to designing a much more effective interface and increasing the quality of a mobile websites usability. http://spyrestudios.com/usability-tips-for-mobile-website-designs/
Q2 Mobile Ad Impressions Grow 61% Over Q1, According To New Report From BuzzCity
In case you needed more proof that investing in mobile is a good idea, global mobile media company BuzzCity released the results of its Global Mobile Advertising Index for Q2 2010, which reveals a quarter-over-quarter increase of 61% for mobile advertising impressions over Q1. http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/q2-mobile-ad-impressions-grow-61-over-q1-according-to-reportfrom-buzzcity-7743/
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Mobile Strategies: Hit The Mark With

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Mobile Strategies: Hit The Mark With

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Publishers Playbook

Hit the mark with

Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

How to create a mobile news or magazine site

5 things your iPhone developer wants you to know

In frenzy over mobile apps, dont forget the mobile web

Scribd reaches out to publishers with free HTML5 conversion

Mobile advertisings moving targets

Mobile contentlike writing for the web, only more so

Which mobile platform should you focus on?

Mobile web resources

Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

HOW TO CREATE A MOBILE NEWS OR MAGAZINE SITE

Use subdomain instead of .mobi

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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

HOW TO CREATE A MOBILE NEWS OR MAGAZINE SITE contd

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HOW TO CREATE A MOBILE NEWS OR MAGAZINE SITE contd

Measuring your mobile traffic

Management buy-in and getting started

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HOW TO CREATE A MOBILE NEWS OR MAGAZINE SITE contd

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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

5 THINGS YOUR IPHONE DEVELOPER WANTS YOU TO KNOW

Do you really need an iPhone app?

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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

5 THINGS YOUR IPHONE DEVELOPER WANTS YOU TO KNOW contd

Do one thing well and figure it out early.

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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

5 THINGS YOUR IPHONE DEVELOPER WANTS YOU TO KNOW contd

Leverage your existing data

Be aware of the size of the team you are working with

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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

5 THINGS YOUR IPHONE DEVELOPER WANTS YOU TO KNOW contd

Determine if you even need an outside team

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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

IN FRENZY OVER MOBILE APPS, DONT FORGET THE MOBILE WEB

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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

Monetizing mobile banners

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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

Dont bombard the user. Enhance it for them

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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

SCRIBD REACHES OUT TO PUBLISHERS WITH FREE HTML5 CONVERSION

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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

SCRIBD REACHES OUT TO PUBLISHERS WITH FREE HTML5 CONVERSION contd

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Publishers Playbook: Mobile Strategies

SCRIBD REACHES OUT TO PUBLISHERS WITH FREE HTML5 CONVERSION contd