"We do not currently directly generate any meaningful revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products, and our ability to do so successfully is unproven," noted the financial statement Facebook made in advance of its IPO.
Say it ain’t so, Joe. Or Mark. Facebook is the darling of social media and the standard by which all others are judged. Not only that, but more than half of its 845 million members access it via their mobile phones or pads.
Wags all over cyberland are looking at the Facebook statement and asking, "If they can’t make it in mobile, who can?"
I’ll put my money on newspapers. And I base that bet on the very thing that makes Facebook strong: its global popularity.
We all have come to realize that one of the challenges of online advertising is that a huge chunk – often the majority – of unique visitors come from outside of the paper’s geographic market. That may be good for society, but it doesn’t impress local advertisers. Those out-of-towners represent the other technical challenge: The Washington Missourian has just as much ability to reach any reader as does the Washington Post .
What sets mobile apart from the Internet is locality. It’s the navigation tool of choice carried by almost all Americans and can carry messages focused just on the area around the user.
Facebook could do that, too. Computers can filter anything. But Facebook has no ad staff in Washington, MO; Dallas, OR; or Atlanta, IL. The missing market for both online and mobile is not the nationals – who have no shortage of advertising opportunities – but the local advertisers who compete against them.
Nevertheless, it is much easier for a professor or techno-seer to say that local papers should capitalize on mobile than it is for a publisher to do it. That is one of the reasons I will go to Barcelona, Spain, at the end of this month to attend the Mobile World Congress.
The MWC is more than your garden variety trade show. It will draw 60,000 to 70,000 participants, all of whom are eager to make a buck, yen or euro from mobile phones.
Better than that, the fact that it draws mobile-centric companies from every corner of the globe turns it into something of a crystal ball for Americans. We are far from the top of the heap in the mobile sector, so the show will give me a chance to see devices, apps and systems that have proven themselves elsewhere before heading for the U.S.
The Mobile World Congress starts Feb. 27 and runs through March 1. I’ll be covering is live here on the rjionline.org. Check back for more.
Comments
Publishers need to rethink how and what they sell to make it wor
I think you are correct the publishers can make mobile work from a sales prospective but not if they sell mobile the same way they sell their desktop site..which by the way is the same way they sold their newspaper.
Consider:
- Local publishers sell mostly by section and not by audience
- Local publishers know that only 30% of their audience is actually in their DMA but most still sell 100% to their local ad sales clients
- Local publishers aren't paying attention to where their unsold inventory goes and you can usually buy it for cheaper on an ad network or demand side platform
Local publishers are going to need to stat thinking about the best way to accomplish their clients goals and not just how to sell pre packaged products. We have a long way to go for both desktop and mobile...but we can still make it work.
To your point local ads are still a wide open game...and one that publishers are in theory best positioned to win.
Fixed font size on apps
I use an iPhone and and iPad. I have downloaded several apps -- CNN, Indianapolis Star, ESPN, and WTHR-TV (a local Indianapolis TV station). All of them have apps where the font size cannot be increased. Why?
Here's why it bugs me to no end: I have an anti-immune condition called cones dystrophy. My eyesight is deteriorating. Bright lights, such as computer screens, give me problems. There isn't a cure yet. The only way to read is to be able to darken the screen of my mobile devices and increase the font size. I can't do that with these apps. It makes no sense to me, especially since everything is going the way of the app in the future. .
I can use the Web to go to the Indystar.com Web site and boost the size of the type so I can see it to read it. I do that same thing withthme Washington Post, etc.
Since you will be agt the mecca of all things mobile I was hoping you could find out an answer or raise the issue with the developers to see if there is a solution.
By the way, I have a Kindle app for my iPad. Once I download a book, I darken the screen and boost the font size so I can keep up on my favorite novels.
Thanks for your time,
Bruce Childs
BJ '69
U. of Missouri
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