LSN Mobile has launched an iPhone application that made it to the top 10 of the Top News Apps category in the Apple App Store, creating advertising opportunities for local businesses.

The application from LSN Mobile aggregates news and information from 170 local broadcast affiliates, keeping its users up-to-date on the latest breaking news. The Local News, Weather and More application gives users access to local breaking news, video clips, weather, sports scores and school closings straight from LSN's network of local media.

"The strategy behind this launch is to allow users to access locally branded content from one central, mobile source," said Lee Durham, CEO at LSN Mobile, Atlanta. "More and more users are accessing news and information from their mobile phones.

"It's all about users having access to all news and weather from their local area on their mobile device," he said.

LSN works with its media partners such as ABC, NBC, Cox Broadcasting, McGraw Hill, Lin, Gray and Raycom to update the end user in real time with the information they want.

LSN's original local news platform was its WAP site with on-deck partnerships with 17 wireless carriers.

The original site saw 10 million unique users a month and more than 120 million monthly page views.

One out of every seven minutes of media consumption today takes place via mobile devices, according to July research from IPG's Universal McCann and AOL.

Users of the application can access information from any of the 210 demographic metropolitan areas.

Via either SMS or email, users can share information that they find relevant with others across any network and handset.

LSN claims that the social networking feature within the Local News, Weather and More application gives advertisers greater opportunities to build up brand awareness.

"Mobile is a good platform for relaying news and weather updates because users want information immediately, even while on the go," Mr. Durham said. "Mobile represents a new path for users to get local content which extends the affiliate's brand through this platform."

Affiliates and advertisers can benefit from this application, as there are style options to match the aesthetics of the local affiliates' sites. For example, ads that open inside the application and the ability to add content through a Web call. That means no updates for the end user.

The Local News, Weather and More iPhone application is available for download in the Apple App Store for free.

"Mobile is going to continue to become more targeted to a user's specific needs, given that more users are turning to their mobile phones for news and information," Mr. Durham said. "For example, text alerts will become more targeted and prevalent as a mobile marketing tool.

"Location-centric news and information will continue to grow," he said. "Video will increase as technology to support it continues to improve. We fully expect that the mobile phone will become one of the primary ways that users access local news."