


	WAN-IFRA XMA Cross Media Awards 2010





	Company: The Associated Press
	Project name: AP Mobile





	General information about the publication

	Please consider AP Mobile for the 2010 WAN-IFRA XMA Cross Media Award. AP Mobile is a product of AP’s Digital Cooperative, designed to create revenue opportunities for local newspapers and broadcasters. It’s a multimedia news portal that aggregates AP national and international news, along with local news from around the world. For the United States, AP Mobile has more than 1,100 U.S.-based news organizations, ranging from the San Francisco Chronicle to the Miami Herald to the Boston Globe. Internationally, AP Mobile has partnered on the local level with Grupo Diarios de America (GDA), the RBS Group of Brazil and the Canadian Press; combined there are more than 40 local newspapers participating internationally in four different languages. AP Mobile features authoritative journalism, award-winning photos, graphics, video and animations. In addition to top and local headlines, it includes categories such as entertainment, sports and wacky on a country and local level. AP Mobile comes in several forms. There’s a mobile website – www.apnews.com – that can be accessed on any Internet-enabled device. We’ve also created applications optimized for six major platforms: iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm WebOS, Nokia S60 series, Windows Mobile and Google Android. Most are available from digital storefronts such as Nokia’s Ovi store and BlackBerry’s App World, as well as “off-deck” stores like www.getjar.com. All applications are free to consumers and carry advertising. It’s global in scope, with versions in English, Portuguese, French and Spanish, which can be customized for various global regions and localities.

	Entry description

	All content on AP Mobile is branded with the contributing partner’s masthead so users can clearly identify the source of the information. We have multiple versions that can be branded globally under AP Mobile or by geography – e.g., AP Mobile Brazil.

	The basic idea of your cross-media local project

	AP Mobile strives to be a comprehensive source of global AND local news for mobile consumers. Our goal is to be the news button on next-generation smartphones – ensuring that this button belongs to the news industry rather than a news aggregator or portal. Developing applications for mobile is costly and time-consuming; this provides a quick way for news organizations to enter the mobile space and get their content in front of a growing audience. This is an additive distribution outlet that can complement a news organization’s own mobile strategy. Users can access local content in the U.S. and Canada by entering a postal code and elsewhere, by selecting a region and/or country. They can choose multiple sources for local news and customize their preferences. The application encourage sharing of content via text, e-mail and social networks, so it can reach audiences beyond mobile. The “Send to AP” feature also allows users to send local news tips and photos directly to AP editors. Our platform, therefore, serves as a means for distribution of news but also as a news gathering tool that engages users.

	Used media channels


	Newspaper		TV

	Mobile Services

Other:

connected TVs, Tablets, Netbooks

The implementation

AP Mobile launched in 2008 and is celebrating its two-year anniversary in May. The number of participating members has grown from 100 to more than 1,100. In addition, we’ve added local partners globally, including El Dia in Argentina, El Nuevo Dia in Puerto Rico and RBS in Brazil. Each day, AP ingests and publishes up to 30,500 local stories. Local content accounts for approximately 15 to 20 percent of monthly page views, following only “top headlines” in popularity.
The application and Web site represent collaboration at the AP. It’s driven by our product development team and is supported by in-house technology staff and partners at Verve Wireless. Front-end production is managed 24/7 by AP editorial staff. Mobile editors choose top stories, send breaking news alerts to users and package photos, graphics and video for display.

Image(s)

AP Mobile RGB.jpg (45 KB)

APlogo_long.jpg (9 KB)

frontpageandroid.jpg (53 KB)

latinfrontpage.JPG (39 KB)

APNewsTicker_redesign_article.jpg (103 KB)

floridaherald.JPG (41 KB)

local copy.jpg (358 KB)

photos copy.jpg (313 KB)

home copy.jpg (404 KB)

Links

www.apnews.com - AP Mobile WAP site, will work onl ...
www.getapmobile.com - landing page, will work on a ...

Results of the local project implementation

AP Mobile continues to be a leader in mobile news and is consistently among the most popular news applications across platforms. It was recently recognized with an Honorable Mention for Excellence in Online Journalism from the National Press Foundation. The judges called it “a dynamic approach to moving complex stories and images to smart phones efficiently, quickly and attractively.” In addition, it was named a finalist in the Society of Professional Journalist’s Deadline Club Awards (winner will be announced in June).
Industry honors are a testament to AP Mobile’s success, but most rewarding is the positive feedback we receive from users, including regular praise for quality, comprehensive news content and ease of use. As one iPhone user, Reg_Gaming_Guy, wrote in an iTunes review: “I think this app pretty much sums up news around the world and local with one touch.”
Success isn’t just anecdotal. The number of downloads continues to climb. To date, more than 4.5 million users have downloaded our application and page views average around 60 million per month. Our audience is global in nature with registered users from as far as Australia.