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How To's Digital Strategies E-Media Tidbits
How News Organizations Can Create a
Mobile-First Strategy
by Steve Buttry
Published Dec. 10, 2009 3:43 pm
I used to watch the crowds in airport lounges when I traveled, studying how
people read newspapers. Even with circulation declining, you could see people
reading newspapers intently. Especially after 9/11, people would have plenty of
time to read while waiting for flights, and newsstands stocked a variety of
papers to choose from.
Look around an airport lounge now. You’ll see more people looking at their
phones than holding newspapers.
When I see people in the airport lounge, I know time is only accelerating with
each tap of their thumbs.
My concern over this acceleration pushed me last month to call for news
companies to pursue a mobile-first strategy. New York University journalism
professor Jay Rosen asked me to “describe what a ‘mobile first’ newsroom
would do differently.” That’s what I’m trying to do here, start the difficult but
important job of answering the question: How do we need to work differently
(not just in the newsroom, Jay) to command the attention of those people
reading and tapping small screens?
A successful mobile-first strategy will require effective work by reporters,
photojournalists, designers, technologists, sales and marketing people, and
management.
The mobile-first strategy needs to embrace new relationships with the
community, as described in my blueprint for the Complete Community
Connection. That principle is fundamental to mobile-first success.
As with Web operations, a crucial question will be whether mobile
opportunities should be the responsibility of a separate operation focused
exclusively on mobile or whether the full operation needs to share mobile
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