Mobile media company LSN Mobile has replaced its Local News mobile application with a more unified Local on the Go app, providing local news, weather and sports by city, according to the user?s preference, to give local coverage a single host.

LSN Mobile believes local media sources have a need for a mobile presence if they are all used together in one place. Through Local on the Go, users can find local news in New York City and San Francisco, for example, in one place.

?We perceived there was a large hole in the marketplace around local news and a major opportunity,? said Louis Gump, CEO of LSN Mobile, Atlanta. ?We felt there was a huge need in the market so we rebuilt our app from the ground up with our local news products. 

?There is an opportunity to build sustainable business for local media on mobile through the new app. Local media can generate enough revenue to matter on a mobile platform.?

Merging together
LSN claims to have been building products with aggregated local news for ten years. Its iOS and Android app was launched in 2011. 

While maintaining that app, the company repositioned itself as a mobile ad network by discontinuing some lines of business, such as building single purpose mobile Web and apps for local media companies. 

The content on the app comes from local news sources, particularly 20 sources of the top 25 markets in the United States and over half of the top 100 markets. 

The app encompasses multiple advertising capabilities through banners and interstitial Web pages and the company claims to be currently working with a number of big brands that plan on advertising with the app. However, LSN does not want to include any more than five brands to maintain more of a sponsorship model.

The user experience
The content is presented in an easy way to grasp but also is easily interchangeable for the app managers.  News, weather and sports are all available on the first screen. Users can click into the news content, view a news provider of one?s choice, and scroll from left to right to see what different stations are offering simultaneously.

If users scroll from top to bottom, they will see between one to 10 articles depending on what is available. 

?We try to give snacks with the ability to immediately dive in,? Mr. Gump said. ?If a person lives in New York City and are traveling to Los Angeles, and also cares about San Francisco, they can build in all three and can toggle back and forth very easily.? 

LSN executives claim there is not a shortage of local news information on mobile, yet there is a shortage of seamless ways to consume that information. 

?As we move into a world with more than 50 percent of digital consumption for news organizations is coming from mobile, we are trying to provide an easy discovery tool,? Mr. Gump said.

LSN recognizes local news differs from national news media by being more fragmented, lending a need for a tool such as Local on the Go. By providing a single host for these publications, they will be able to grow their own business and mobile presence.

?We did not enter this market to be a peripheral player,? Mr. Gump said. ?We want to help move the market and are thinking about a mindset of mobile excellence for this market by establishing a standard for a very easy-to-use app that gives people all they want about news, weather and sports in one simple place.?

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon, editorial assistant for Mobile Marketer, New York