By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
The Associated Press, which rolled out its Mobile News Network only a few months ago, isn’t wasting any time enhancing the news service.
AP last month said that 728 newspapers have already joined MNN, a five-fold jump since its May launch. MNN is now available across the nation’s top 100 media markets.
Traffic meantime, topped 2 million page views in the first month, AP, said, with 150,000 unique visitors logging on via the service’s Web application version.
AP gave another boost to the service when it launched software aimed at capitalizing on the capabilities of 3G iPhones, which were introduced in July. The software lets iPhone or iPod touch users access MNN and it was downloaded more than 10,000 times the day it was launched, the cooperative said.
Browse full stories
Among other features, the iPhone software allows readers to browse full stories even when out of network reception and it also enables users to customize navigation options. The program also allows viewers to save stories of interest and to flip through photos and videos dynamically.
AP members made a conscious choice to provide full-length articles from the AP and newspaper partners instead of abbreviated versions to iPhone users, said Jeffery Litvack, the cooperative’s global director of new media.
We wanted to take advantage of the larger screen size and graphical capabilities,” he said. “The videos through the iPhone are of a higher quality than you might see on other types of phones.”
The iPhone application was developed in tandem with Verve Wireless. The software manages content and determines the types of ads transmitted to users. Earlier this year, AP led a $3 million round of financing in the company.
Litvack said AP is now examining how to optimize MNN further to support more next-gen handsets with sophisticated display capabilities.
“So when you look at sites on the Verizon Voyager, LG Dare or Samsung Instinct (handsets) we are going take advantage of the additional graphical user capabilities of those phones and offer a lot more navigation and customization options than you would be able to have on a simple WAP site,” Litvack said.
AP is also building client applications to support devices like the BlackBerry.
Ads, national and local
On the advertising front, AP is working with national ad networks as well as examining how to tap the local market, Litvack said.
MNN’s ability to target news based on location will eventually allow newspapers to offer hyperlocal ad programs, he said.
“AP members developed a set of business rules so that the ads will be placed by the newspaper,” he said. “So if you go and buy an ad within a given newspaper for print, you’ll also be able to buy it on the Mobile News Network in the future.”
Litvack said that location-based ad services will be rolling out over the next few months. Some options may include ad services cloaked with the ability to deliver coupons to users as they walk by a particular retail outlet.
“With mobile in particular, we want to drive the consumer to take an action — to walk into the store — that you can’t do if (the ad message) is delivered to your computer.”
MNN is the first product released by AP’s Digital Cooperative, an initiative aimed at finding new digital outlets for the news and information produced by AP and its members.
Other initiatives expected
Other initiatives include a Newsmap, a way for search engines to have a complete map to the news online, especially the originating source of a story, Litvack said.
“Rather than having to ping thousands of Web sites, the search engines can ping one database that’s a complete collection of all the news.”
AP is also testing its Marketplace program, a strategy that allows members to share stories among each other in a given local market.
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