Where newspapers are creating blogs and adding podcasts and other multimedia, it's often a matter of acting first and working out the business model later: If it draws users, in time it will draw revenue. And time will determine what sort of revenue and how much.
And so it is with mobile content, as newspapers rush into offer content for mobile phones and other portable devices, in what's turning out to be a motley assortment of news formats and ad models.
Which ones will dominate is anyone's guess. For now, it's enough that readers and advertisers are showing interest.
Many newspapers, including Gannett Co.'s USA Today and The Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, two Tribune Co. papers, are offering free mobile content through ad-supported wireless application protocol (WAP) sites, or web sites designed for mobile devices.
Others, like the Arizona Republic, offer SMS texts that include news alerts and coupons. And then there are The Wall Street Journal and New York Times, which charge monthly subscription fees.
By now most newspapers are looking hard at mobile content, or they should be, says Colby Atwood, vice president at Borrell Associates, an internet research firm.
"It is gaining appeal as more and more people use mobile devices as a tool for accessing information. It certainly makes sense that newspapers would want to be investing in this as a marketing tool," he says.
"It's not a significant revenue source compared to the revenue they're generating from their online properties. But it is an area of growth, and an area that newspapers will want to defend because other people are going to be going after that space, too."
Figuring out the right models will come later, says Atwood. "It's early enough in the game that it's hard to say which models are going to dominate."
At USA Today, offerings include a WAP site, SMS text information and a mobile sudoku game. Users can browse a site with sections that include news, sports, life and tech. Or they can text a code for a stock listing and receive a return text with the latest price.
Just as with the web or the printed edition of a newspaper, what users look for in mobile content varies, says Matt Jones, who heads up USA Today's mobile initiatives.
"It's a combination of things. In the case of the game, people have some downtime, but for the mobile WAP site, people just want a quick bite of the latest news or sports," he says.
The content comes with scaled-down banner advertising from the likes of Exxon Mobile, Microsoft, Toyota's Lexus and Sheraton hotels. Ads link to micro-sites formatted for mobile devices. An Exxon banner, for example, allows readers to find the nearest gas station, get discounts on fuel or snacks, or sign up for a reminder to change their oil.
Jones won't say how many mobile users currently access USA Today's content, but he says it's in the millions and that the market is only growing as consumers get phones with more capabilities.
Likewise, he says the advertising potential is impressive, considering the hours users spend on their phones and their undivided attention. The ads work, he says. "The response rates are significantly higher than they are on the web."
Still, Jones considers today's mobile marketing capabilities to be about where web marketing was back in 1995. Web-style behavioral targeting is one hope that's not yet a reality. Another is hyper-local advertising, in which a marketer will be able to send a mobile coupon to a consumer standing within a few blocks of a retail outlet.
Until then, mobile serves a valuable function in driving traffic back to papers' web sites, says Laura Lombardi, senior vice president of media at TextCaster, which provides SMS news and coupon services to newspapers, radios and television stations.
Papers typically get slews of sign-ups for severe weather alerts when storms are approaching, while the other top draw is breaking news. And all of it serves to build a paper's relationship with readers, especially the much-sought-after younger demographic.
"Newspapers are moving in the direction they have to," says Lombardi. "It's so much harder to capture a young person's interests. You've got to speak to them in the technology they're used to. It's a way to reach a younger demographic that is already used to sending text messages as part of their daily lives."
