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Hearst Television expands mobile local content initiatives

Hearst Television Inc. has partnered with LSN Mobile to deliver local news and weather content onto enhanced mobile Web sites, downloadable applications and wireless carrier portals.

With this new partnership, Hearst Television?s goal is to ensure that its content is available anytime and anywhere across television newscasts, Web sites, online portal partners and mobile platforms to serve each of its 26 local communities.

?We see mobile as a significant and growing platform for delivering local breaking news and weather content,? said Steve Sharp, director of business development, Hearst Television, New York. ?Therefore, having a solid, scalable offering is critical to the purpose we serve in each of our 26 local markets.

?Only through a partnership with LSN can we truly reach 100 percent of our potential users, whether they have the latest smartphone device or a traditional feature phone,? he said. ?Our target demographic is anyone with a mobile phone in any of our markets?local news and weather is relevant to everyone.

?While we have a very strong presence on-air and online, we still intend to leverage mobile to broaden and grow.?

Hearst Corp.?s Hearst Television is a local media company that owns 26 television stations and manages an additional three TV and two radio stations. It also owns 37 Web sites and 20 digital multicast channels providing news, weather and entertainment programming.

LSN Mobile is a mobile media and marketing company that enables local media and brand advertisers to extend their reach to the mobile consumer market.

Hearst gussies up its mobile platforms
Under the agreement, Hearst Television will leverage LSN Mobile?s Local Wireless media-to-mobile platform to deliver a range of mobile content that complements the reach of its local TV stations.

The partnership is designed to increase the amount of mobile traffic for Hearst Television due to the mobile device optimization, locally relevant mobile Web content and syndication through the wireless carriers.

In addition, LSN Mobile is delivering downloadable applications for Hearst Television?s local TV stations on iPhone, Android, and soon, BlackBerry.

Hearst?s mobile Web sites are a critical element in providing its audiences with relevant, up-to-the-minute content and extending its TV brands.

This partnership is designed to takes Heart?s mobile effort to the next level by bringing mobile users even more immediate local content they can use wherever they are.

Its mobile sites and applications also provide another platform for Heart?s advertisers to extend their messaging.

Hearst is using both on-air and online promotion to promote these services to their viewers, and the response has been tremendous, per LSN.

When the stations began promoting the mobile apps this past spring, individual station application downloads jumped to more than 1,000 per day.

In September, traffic within the mobile applications, measured in standard page-views, was more than 40 percent of Hearst?s total mobile traffic.

The mobile Web sites are promoted as a natural extension of the traditional Web site promotion: ?Be sure to catch all of the latest news and weather on KETV.com on your PC or mobile phone.?

The mobile advertising elements for all 26 Hearst stations are any combination of display ads driving to brand microsites, click-to-call and location finders.

?The microsites offer advertisers presence on the mobile site and have given them a tremendous way to interact with a new audience," said Derrick DeCarlo, vice president of new media for LSN Mobile, Atlanta.

?The sites boast a wide variety of local and national brands?examples include Toyota, Wendy?s and Nissan?sold by the local stations, in addition to campaigns sold by LSN?s mobile marketing division,? he said.

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