Developed in house, the site cost just €20,000 to set up, Hans Laroes, editor-in-chief of NOS News, told the Digital News Affairs 2009 (DNA) conference.
Built by a team of six in NOS' new media department in two weeks, the site focuses on news and sport headlines, rolling bulletins and live streamed coverage.
Last week's press conference following the Dutch plane crash near Schiphol airport was a turning point for the site as its ability to live stream the event gave it the edge over the country's other media, Laroes tells Journalism.co.uk.
Developing the free-to-access site in house kept costs down, he adds.
But most importantly the team working on it had the right mindset following the three-year integration process at the broadcaster.
"Our mindset became digital. It's not a gadget, it's not something to make a profit, it's another way of bringing journalism, but it has to be in your genes and minds," he says.
"Newspapers, especially in the Netherlands are under big pressure, especially from their publishers because they're not making money any more. We were already dealing in audio and video; we know how to edit a story and we have a lot of resources for mobile."
Plans are in place to develop an iPhone NOS site - the group's Teletext app for the device has already proved popular, he adds.
Live streaming, which was used as part of a dedicated NOS Olympics mobile site to cover individual sports, also has the potential to offer more targeted election coverage, he says.
Opening up NOS' archives through mobile and incorporating the reader in a style of mobile blogging are also being considered, Laroes says.
But if, for whatever reason, people stopped using mobile phones NOS would not hesitate to kill its mobile site and seek its audience out elsewhere, he insists.
"If it fails, that's ok - we lost some money. We tried and we learned something from it and we'll do something else," he says.
"The 8 o'clock bulletin is our main bulletin and you don't mess around with it; there's evolution of course, but you don't mess with it. The mobile platform is something you can experiment with in a certain context."
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