The New York Times has placed third in Mobile Marketer?s Mobile Publisher of the Year awards.

Based on the nominations received from readers and submissions from this publication's editorial team, Mobile Marketer is convinced that The New York Times serves as a role model for publishers and media companies for its outstanding use of the mobile medium. Thus, the New York Times has officially been bestowed with the bronze medal in the Mobile Publisher of the Year awards.

?The New York Times is always one of the first publishers that we consider across all of our brands when we?re thinking about a mobile media campaign?when we?re talking about publishers outside of the mobile ad networks,? said Paul Gelb, director and mobile practice lead at Razorfish, New York.

?They?ve done a great job establishing a robust presence across multiple devices,? he said. ?I can say that as someone who accesses their content as a consumer multiple mobile platforms?on my Droid, iPhone and iPad.

?We have a pretty strong relationship with them for online media buying, so as far as creating plans that go across digital channels, online, mobile and out-of-home, it is a seamless process.?

Site to see
The New York Times has a highly-trafficked mobile Web site and a range of applications for multiple operating systems, including apps for Android, iPad and several for the iPhone?The Scoop: NYC and the New York Times Real Estate application.

The newspaper publisher takes advantage of its house inventory to drive subscriptions and cross-promote its applications and mobile Web site.

For example, its Android application features a banner ad promoting home delivery of the print edition, featuring the URL http://homedelivery.nytimes.com and the call-to-action ?Enjoy home delivery of The Times for 50 percent off.?

The New York Times recently announced that it is creating a second revenue stream and preserving its online advertising business by offering paid subscriptions for its iPad application, effective next year.

The news of the paid subscription model comes with the recent update of the company?s iPad application, which now features more than 25 sections of content.

The new application builds on the previous design of the Editors? Choice app, but now features videos and photos, breaking news alerts and enhanced section and article navigation (see story).

Tablet cures
More than anything else, though, the New York Times is worthy of recognition for providing an excellent canvas for brands to run multichannel and mobile-only ad campaigns.

Last month, Ford Motor Co. ran mobile ads across the New York Times? mobile properties to showcase the Ford Edge?s MyFord Touch driver connect technology (see story).

In June, luxury brand Chanel promoted its J12 Marine Series of watches through The New York Times? iPad application.

Chanel tapped Medialets for the ad creative. The campaign targets users through three ads, using both banner and interstitial media (see story).

In April, JPMorgan Chase & Co.?s Chase Sapphire, a rewards card targeting affluent consumers, signed on as the exclusive launch sponsor of the New York Times iPad application.

The New York Times iPad application launched with a full-page vertical and horizontal interstitial ad that provided a large interactive canvas for Chase Sapphire?s rich-media mobile ad campaign (see story).

T3 collaborated with ZenithOptimedia and Medialets on the design of the Chase Sapphire ad units, which achieved high interaction times and click-through rates (see story).

Mr. Gelb said that he really liked the Mercedes-Benz campaign that ran recently on The New York Times? iPad application.

?The Mercedes-Benz campaign focused on some great video content that we had,? Mr. Gelb said. ?Realizing there was a lot deeper and longer usage on the New York Times? iPad app and considering the type of content we wanted to focus on for our ads, it was a great opportunity within their mobile footprint.

?Especially for our luxury brands, the New York Times [mobile sites and applications] provide an opportunity to appear in an environment they?re familiar with, that they like and contextually what they?d want their brand to be next do,? he said. ?It?s a large audience given their ubiquity.?

Time to teach
Also, the New York Times deserves accolades for its efforts in reaching out to the ad agency community to educate the industry about the mobile advertising opportunities it offers.

?One of the things they did really well early on was taking me and various media planners to their office to show us what they were doing and how they were looking at ad opportunities, not only with rich media on their Web sites but on various mobile devices and screen sizes,? Mr. Gelb said.

?We knew they had robust product selections and plans for mobile and they were seeking our input early in the process,? he said.

Mobile Marketer's Dan Butcher interviewed Webster Lewin, senior vice president and director of digital innovation and strategy at MS&LGroup Digital, New York. Here is what he had to say:

What is your take on The New York Times? mobile strategy? How does it stack up against competitors in the space?
The New York Times is the clear leader in terms of pursuing an aggressive, forward-looking mobile strategy that has been updated and optimized regularly as the mobile ecosystem evolves. It has a full range of mobile services, from SMS to apps, and its mobile Web site has always been best-in-class.

What is it doing right? Is there anything that it can improve on?
The New York Times is outstanding at quickly offering new, high-quality tools for accessing content on new platforms. It has also done a good job at integrating advertising into those platforms.

However, based on the few number of advertisers that actually show up, it seems like it needs to work harder to make its mobile Web, mobile app and iPad inventory appealing to a wide range of advertisers.

What are brands and agencies looking for from their mobile publisher partners?
These days, marketers are always looking beyond pure reach, and towards relevancy and the ability to target messages to more specific consumer segments based on variables such as location and specific content.

Mobile publishers are only beginning to offer these sorts of targeting options.

Marketers also want mobile to provide consumers with the richest, most visually appealing experience possible.

App advertising and display banners on smartphones can now offer true rich-media experiences.

In some cases, however, it is next to impossible for users to leave the application and gain direct access to advertisers? mobile content.

The result is that an advertiser sees a lift in mobile traffic to its site during the actual ad flight days and little, if any, residual lift from their ad spend.

Publishers should always give the end user the option to leave the application and view content in the browser or other mobile application.

Final Take