Accepting nominations for Mobile Publisher of the Year 2010

August 31, 2010

Smart tomes on smartphones

Mobile Marketer is accepting nominations for Mobile Publisher of the Year 2010. The candidates must show all-round excellence in mobile content and advertising, offering an experience that is worthy of emulation.

While it is not necessary to have the business model firmed up at this stage – paid access, partly paid, advertising-free, free but advertising-supported or a variation of them – it is key to have a mobile service that demonstrates a mobile-reading and branding experience par excellence.

“The future of mobile advertising lies in the hands of innovative publishers who get mobile right from the content, advertising and subscription perspective,” said Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief of Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily.

“All indications are that consumers are heading toward digital consumption of their news, especially if it is time-sensitive and driven by today’s 24/7 cycle,” he said. “To not have a viable and user-friendly Internet and mobile experience will mean loss of readers and revenue to competitors that are alive to the potential of Media 3.0.”

The nominees must be publishers – newspapers, magazines, online publications, industry blogs and radio and television broadcasters – with mobile operations that are supported by the entire organization with resources, personnel, technology and content.

Criteria
Here are the criteria by which the Mobile Publisher of the Year candidates will be judged:

 User experience: The reading or viewing experience on the mobile device – smartphones and tablets such as the Apple iPad – must be topnotch

 Content: The mobile service must offer the similar content to the organization’s Internet, print or broadcast operations. Mobile must be taken seriously and without fear of cannibalization

 Design: The mobile edition must not simply be a barebones, stripped-down version of the traditional Web site

 Traffic: Unique monthly visits to the mobile site or application – or increased sign-ups to SMS alerts and mobile email – are proof of the mobile service’s popularity. Traffic numbers, both internal data and measured and verified by a third party, must be shown for four consecutive quarters

 Advertiser-friendly: To ensure a viable mobile operation, the mobile edition must demonstrate how ads can exist in context with content without disrupting the user experience. Evidence must be shown of ad campaigns that ran in prior four quarters, with variation of units including banners and rich media

 ROI on advertising: Any proof of advertising that worked or that is engaging in terms of brand awareness or lead generation will be a differentiator

 Ad agency relations: The publisher must have proved to the nation’s leading ad agencies and their media buyers that the mobile edition is a serious consideration for an ad buy and one that delivers a responsive and engaged audience

 Revenue model: The publisher must demonstrate proof of a revenue model that can adapt to the increasing consumption of digital media. Be it subscription, a mix of subscription and advertising, advertising-only or a hybrid of these models, the publisher must indicate a path to revenue generation that can support a mobile unit in conjunction with the larger Internet operation. Revenue numbers will be an added bonus

 Integration with other channels: The mobile offerings must integrate with the media organization’s other channels, particularly Internet. Synergy within the digital operations is preferable

 Personnel: The organization should have dedicated senior and junior talent running mobile operations under the larger digital umbrella
 
Deadline is Sept. 24
Nominations must be sent to in a Word document by Sept. 24 with responses to this checklist. Please attach a maximum of six high res color JPG shots – no PNG, PDF, BMP or EPS files – of the mobile site, application, SMS alerts and ad campaigns.

Also, please enclose email and phone contact details for the editor and publisher – or mobile leader – in charge of the organization’s mobile operations.

Nominations will not be considered without the Word document addressing the criteria, six JPG images and contact details for those leading the mobile operations’ editorial and advertising teams.

The Mobile Marketer editorial team will winnow the candidates and announce the Mobile Publisher of the Year this fall.   

“Obviously, not every publisher will be able to meet all criteria, but those that meet some of them halfway have already recognized a future where general media consumption will shift almost totally to the Internet, mobile and television,” Mr. Alam Khan said.