Journal Star rolling with mobile classifieds

By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor

The Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star is off and running with a new program geared toward reaching text message-savvy subscribers.

Last month the newspaper (Monday-Friday, 76,848; Saturday, 70,618; Sunday, 82,835) launched a mobile classified automotive ads program using CellSigns Inc.’s Cellifieds app with plans of adding more features for readers and advertisers.

“We are offering mobile searches where if people are looking for a car, they can text Cadillac, or whatever it is, to our text-messaging program and they’ll receive a response with specific ads from their query,” said Manoj Nair, the Journal Star’s director of online operations and technology.

Cellifieds gives readers access to information about real estate, autos and employment listings. Users get information not available in print ads, including pictures, and they can contact advertisers directly with a click-to-call feature.

The paper plans to launch a similar service aimed at employment and real estate advertisers sometime this year.

The real estate service will support the short message service protocol, allowing users to receive information about a property after sending a short code, Nair said.

News alerts, promotions

At the same time, the Journal Star launched a mobile service that sends out news, sports and information alerts to registered users. Some 200 readers signed up to receive the service, dubbed JumpStart, after a soft launch of the program last month, Nair said.

The paper is working to add more advertisers and special promotions to JumpStart, he said.

“Right now we are working on a deal with a pizza chain in Lincoln to do a promotion so that when they deliver the pizza they will put the texting information on the pizza boxes,” said Nair. “And we have a grocery store lined up where they will be giving away $500 in a drawing from the people signing up for the promotion service.”

The paper also plans to build a WAP-enabled Web site to provide mobile users with additional access to the Journal Star’s news and information.

To promote its mobile classifieds efforts, the paper rolled out a dedicated Web site, www.402411.com.

“The mission of 402411 is to offer an interactive Web site where you can view instructions on how the program works and the benefits for readers and advertisers,” Nair said.

The Web site also lets readers sign up for JumpStart.