Newspaper association teams with Aether on wireless news project
Using the gateway, NAA and participating newspapers will explore how mobile users access news, weather, sports and other information as well as wireless advertising. Mobile device users will be able to link to the gateway from the wireless sites of participating newspapers, or may type the Web address of the gateway into their device browsers to access participating newspapers from a single site. Participating papers will track which sections of their wireless news sites are accessed most often and when, allowing them to determine what type of content is most valuable to consumers on a wireless platform.
"We're gratified that NAA can once again assist in guiding newspapers to the vanguard of applying new technology that serves both readers and advertisers," said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. "Mobile users in particular have shown strong interest in having instant access to relevant, timely and intensely local information. Rest assured that, whatever the delivery device, newspapers will be everywhere our users are."
The NAA New Media Federation's combined Business Development and Wireless Task Forces are guiding the project. "Given the likelihood that wireless distribution will change our businesses radically, we see this pilot as an essential step toward securing our place on these devices and better identifying user and advertiser needs," said Ian Murdock, digital media director of Hearst Newspapers and head of NAA's New Media Federation Business Development Task Force. "We are excited about the quality of the newspapers participating and believe that the pilot represents an outstanding learning opportunity for these companies as well as the rest of the NAA membership."
Participating newspapers include The New York Times, the Seattle Post- Intelligencer, the (Los Angeles) Daily News, The Arizona Republic, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, The Daily Oklahoman's Oklahoman.com, The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, the St. Petersburg Times, The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, and The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va.
Also, throughout the nine-month pilot, the effectiveness and revenue potential of advertisements in the wireless medium will be gauged using ad- serving technology provided by WindWire, Inc., a wireless advertising company based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. WindWire will provide all development, implementation, hosting and tracking of the gateway's advertising technology.
Other technical teammates in the project include SageMetrics Corporation, a business intelligence ASP which turns data from any source into actionable information, and NetRatings, publisher of the Nielsen/NetRatings services. Companies with expertise to contribute and newspapers wishing to participate in the pilot should contact Melinda Gipson, NAA director of new media business development, at gipsm@naa.org. John W. Iobst, Ph.D., NAA vice president of newspaper operations and research, is the technical contact for the project and can be reached at iobsj@naa.org.
"Aether is honored to be a partner with the group representing the nation's most-respected news organizations in this significant wireless initiative," said Tom Lupica, Aether's senior vice president for wireless services. "The gateway will offer a new level of accessibility to local news and information, as well as providing participating newspapers with information essential to assessing the effectiveness of the new promising area of wireless advertising."
Aether Systems Inc., is a leading provider of wireless and mobile data products and services allowing real-time communications and transactions across a full range of devices and networks. Using its engineering expertise, the ScoutWare family of products including the Aether Intelligent Messaging (AIM) software platform, and its network operations center and customer care-center, Aether seeks to provide comprehensive, technology- independent wireless and mobile computing solutions. Aether develops and delivers wireless data services across a variety of industries and market segments in the United States and internationally. For more information, please visit http://www.aethersystems.com.
NAA is a nonprofit organization representing the $57 billion newspaper industry and more than 2,000 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. Most NAA members are daily newspapers, accounting for 87 percent of the U.S. daily circulation. Headquartered in Tysons Corner (Vienna, Va.), the Association focuses on six key strategic priorities that affect the newspaper industry collectively: marketing, public policy, diversity, industry development, newspaper operations and readership. Information about NAA and the industry may also be found at the Association's World Wide Web site on the Internet (http://www.naa.org).