What’s the best way for news providers to go mobile – WAP portals, Java apps, bar codes if you’re The Sun?

Not so for Agence France-Presse, which is taking a very different approach and making news footage available as video ringtones. The clips can be downloaded from the website of video ringtone service Vringo.

In a press statement, Gilles Tarot, marketing and sales director of AFP North America said the video ringtones are ‘one of the newest and most personal ways of sharing information’.

Here’s a sample clip of what it might look (and sound) like. Wouldn’t it be better with the news commentary too though?

UPDATE: [News editor’s note] Sounds like awful idea to me.

Update of Update – having watched the example clip I’m even more convinced of it.