Category Archives: Mobile

NME launches new paid-for iPhone app

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NME has launched a new application for the iPhone – at 59p a download.

The application will offer users ‘iconic images’ from the magazine and photos from the app can also be bought. The bought images can be uploaded to Facebook or saved to your mobile, a release from publisher IPC explained.

The application has been developed by Umee using their Umee Mobile for iPhone platform.

NME recently launched another app for iPhone, the NME Radio app, which enabled users to purchase and download songs as they are played on the station.

Today’s launch follows recent iPhone app releases by several publishers. The Financial Times launched its iPhone app in July. It provided registered users with access to 10 articles a month and access for paying subscribers to more articles and market tracking tools.

Related reading on Journalism.co.uk: ‘iPhone apps: To charge or not to charge?’

WSJ confirms paid-for access to news on mobile

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News Corp’s Dow Jones has confirmed speculation from earlier this week and announced that the Wall Street Journal will now charge for full access to its content via Blackberry, iPhone and iPod touch devices.

According to a press release, the WSJ applications will remain free to download for each device and continue to offer a mixture of free and subscription content.

The new access model will be introduced from October 24 and hopes to expand the paying audience for Dow Jones’ content by highlighting the specialist, time-sensitive nature of its news.

“Our new mobile subscription model will enable us to continue to invest in the world’s most essential news content and deliver it to our subscribers wherever and whenever they want it,” said Gordon McLeod, president of the Wall Street Journal digital network, in the release.

“This transition also reinforces the value of our content on mobile, just as we’ve done online for more than a decade.”

Full access to the site from these applications will cost $2 per week for a mobile-only subscription. A subscription to mobile and the WSJ in print or online will cost $1 a week.

Print and online subscribers will have free access to content via the smartphone apps.

Full access to the site’s mobile site will only be granted to WSJ.com subscribers, the release added.

Today UK website the Spectator announced it would introduced a range of subscription packages for its website with immediate effect.

paidContent: WSJ ready to start charging for mobile apps

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The Wall Street Journal is ready to start charging for mobile access on the Blackberry and iPhone and the video site Hulu can be expected to introduce some kind of payment model, News Corp CEO and chairman Rupert Murdoch told delegates at the the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVIII Conference.

Full story at this link…

Monday Note: Why paid news on mobile could work

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Frederic Filoux looks at the success of iPhone apps from news organisations – the fastest growing segment of iPhone apps, according to recent research – and the Associated Press’ Mobile News Network, which also makes use of smartphone technology.

What is more, argues Filoux, while none of the media apps are paid-for, the relatively new App Purchase feature allows transactions (e.g. buying books, music) from within an application.

“In theory, with Apple’s infrastructure (and cash register) at the ready, the App Purchase is the tool of choice for a subscription based system. With the current (and durable) collapse of the advertising on the internet, and the difficulty to push ads on a mobile, paid-for mobile content is undoubtedly a key component of new business models,” he writes.

Full post at this link…

The Independent’s new iPhone news app

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The Independent has launched a new app for the iPhone, it announced on its own site.

“Once launched the App automatically downloads all the articles and images for offline reading, talking around a minute on a Wi-Fi connection and a few minutes on a standard mobile connection, making it possible to read the latest Independent news even when without mobile reception. Articles can be read while the download continues.”

The app includes 12 categories of articles, among them: World and UK news, Sport, Business, Football, Opinion, People, Politics, Technology, Arts and Entertainment and Environment.

Full announcement at this link…

App at this link.

The Independent launched its mobile site in early July.

BreakingNewsOn launches iPhone ‘push’ alerts

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BreakingNewsOn (BNO), the breaking news service based around Twitter, has just announced that it will soon be using Apple’s ‘push notification’ to send breaking news to iPhone users.

The launch is the latest development for the service: founder Michael van Poppel told Journalism.co.uk in February of plans to establish a website for BNO.

It is expected to launch in the week of the August 3. BNO reports many stories a day and does not intend to ‘push’ all of the headlines to their users, it said in a release. The service has decided that editors will be selective and only send alerts ‘when important headlines break’.

But users will also be able to get updates from a second stream intended for ‘news junkies’ or journalists. Subscribers to this channel will receive more notifications.

Users of the app will be given the option to choose what volume/what major news stories they receive alerts via a ‘push’ and can also use the service to find other stories that they were not alerted about.

The application will cost $1.99 to download and then $0.99 per month after that. BNO said it is also considering expanding the service to other platforms such as the BlackBerry.

Telegraph relaunches mobile website

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The Telegraph has relaunched its mobile website – the second redesign of the site almost a year after its last overhaul in August 2008, following its launch in July last year.

The revamped site now offers video content from Telegraph TV and site-wide mobile search, a press release said.

The redesign of the site, which was implemented by Bluestar Mobile – the firm behind the Independent’s mobile launch too, will also offer new ad formats including banner ads, Google Ad Sense and sponsorships.

“Mobile is an increasingly important platform for both our readers and advertisers – it is also an area which is going through major change. At TMG we are working to ensure that we remain at the forefront of innovation and offer our readers and advertisers the most compelling product available,” said Maani Safa, who was named head of mobile for Telegraph Media Group in February, in the release.

In October last year the title launched its Google Android app.

Econsultancy: Independent’s mobile site reviewed

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Econsultancy’s Graham Chorlton takes a look at the Independent’s newly launched mobile site:

“The look and feel of the site is fine, with the gold and white colour scheme echoing that of the main site. It does lack the visual appeal of both The Guardian and FT.com mobile sites, but keeping it simple is fine for a mobile site that people will use on a variety of handsets and connection speeds.”

Full review at this link…

ReadWriteWeb: How a baseball iPhone app could create a new media model

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RWW looks at MLB.com’s iPhone app, which has just added a feature to stream live video.

At $10, fans of the sport are downloading the app to gain access to stats and data – a new revenue stream for other media?

“The emphasis on statistics, the extensive reporting infrastructure that baseball already has built out and the ‘wow factor’ of the iPhone’s interface are all things that other established media outlets have an opportunity to emulate,” writes Marshall Kirkpatrick.

Full story at this link…