Online Journalism News

Now you can read magazines on your phone

Mobile content producer Sendandsee has announced production of what are claimed to be the world's first magazines for viewing on mobile phones.

The Finnish company will launch the three weekly titles this month. Each magazine will contain at least 16 pages of news, images, sound and video and will cost around two Euros per week. Subscribers will also be able to use the content to personalise their mobile phone.

Whopla! will cover celebrity news, Riento! will cover sports news and ROCsport will be an extreme sports magazine. All the titles are designed for groups with high mobile use - young professionals aged between 18 and 45.

"We are selling the system as white label format to magazine brands at the moment," said Jussi Lystimaki, spokesperson for Sendandsee.com.

"Monthly magazines can, for example, promote their next edition to users in advance, developing brand recognition and improving newsstand sales and customer relationships."

Magazine content is sourced from news and images agencies and compiled by a small production team in each country. Editions are delivered as multimedia messages using the GPRS (general packet radio service) internet connection on the users mobile phone.

"There is a need for high-quality content services, and we believe that celebrity and sports content is a good spearhead for selected genres to start with," Mr Lystimaki told dotJournalism.

"Our studies tell us the market has good potential for this kind of product, which is easy to understand, easy to use and has extra value through the phone personalisation options."

The format offers huge potential for advertisers, with each magazine designed to carry up to four adverts. Advertisers have been keen to experiment with the format, said Mr Lystimaki, but so far there has been no publishing format ready to support mobile advertising.

"This is a focused customer group to reach and provide exclusive offers through mobile coupons or promotions," he said.

"Our magazines enable advertisers to take familiar methods and models one step further."

Related articles:
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story875.shtml
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story814.shtml
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story783.shtml
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story572.shtml

See also:
http://www.sendandsee.com

Tags (click tag to find related articles; click icon for feed):
mobile phones | content services | eur | cellular telephone | internet connection | sports news | rocsport | jussi | sports content | mobile content producer | mobile advertising | extreme sports magazine | jussi lystimaki |

Sign up here for our free, daily email newsletter to get all the latest stories, jobs, tips and more.

Got a story? Email our news team: Laura Oliver; Judith Townend or telephone +44 (0)1273 384290. You can also follow us on Twitter: @journalismnews / @LauraOliver / @JTownend.