Navigate
X
    Mark Glaser
  • 13 years ago
    • Categories: MobileShift

Is getting news on your mobile phone a satisfying or frustrating experience?

So many people have cell phones with web access that media companies are falling over each other to deliver content to cell phones. A recent article in the New York Times noted that CBS, News Corp. and ESPN are all putting big resources into mobile content, news and video delivered to cell phones, but the article also pointed out that only 44% of cell phone users get video or Net content on their phones. Part of the problem is that many sites are not built specifically for small screens with slower connection speeds. The experience of getting news on phones has been pretty hit-or-miss. Have you tried getting news delivered to your phone or by surfing news sites on your mobile? What’s your experience been like — satisfying or frustrating? If you have found good applications or mobile browsers that help your experience, please share. I’ll run the best comments in the next Your Take Roundup.

Tags: cellphonescommentsmobile web
Mark Glaser :Mark Glaser is founder and executive director of MediaShift. He contributes regularly to Digital Content Next’s InContext site and newsletter. Glaser is a longtime freelance journalist whose career includes columns on hip-hop, reviews of videogames, travel stories, and humor columns that poked fun at the titans of technology. From 2001 to 2005, he wrote a weekly column for USC Annenberg School of Communication's Online Journalism Review. Glaser has written essays for Harvard's Nieman Reports and the website for the Yale Center for Globalization. Glaser has written columns on the Internet and technology for the Los Angeles Times, CNET and HotWired, and has written features for the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Entertainment Weekly, the San Jose Mercury News, and many other publications. He was the lead writer for the Industry Standard's award-winning "Media Grok" daily email newsletter during the dot-com heyday, and was named a finalist for a 2004 Online Journalism Award in the Online Commentary category for his OJR column. Glaser won the Innovation Journalism Award in 2010 from the Stanford Center for Innovation and Communication. Glaser received a Bachelor of Journalism and Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Missouri at Columbia, and currently lives in San Francisco with his wife Renee and his two sons, Julian and Everett. Glaser has been a guest on PBS' "Newshour," NPR's "Talk of the Nation," KALW's "Media Roundtable" and TechTV's "Silicon Spin." He has given keynote speeches at Independent Television Service's (ITVS) Diversity Retreat and the College Media Assocation's national convention. He has been part of the lecture/concert series at Yale Law School and Arkansas State University, and has moderated many industry panels. He spoke in May 2013 to the Maui Business Brainstormers about the "Digital Media Revolution." To inquire about speaking opportunities, please use the site's Contact Form.

View Comments (7)

  • Mark,

    It depends on how well the mobile portal is designed. I have a Treo and I enjoy reading WSJ articles immensely. I think mdog.com powers their web portal (it's text based, easy to navigate and quick to load).

    NYT's mobile portal is another story. It's slow and a nightmare to navigate. In my opinion, it boils down to thinking about how to create a user-friendly experience.

  • I agree with Kyle that a website's portal makes a world of difference. However, I use my online RSS reader 90% of the time, which helps to bypass the limitations of surfing on a mobile phone.

    Despite the obvious drawbacks to reading news on a mobile--few graphics, lots of scrolling, awkward navigation like that of the NYT portal--I enjoy not getting newsprint on my fingers. I'm also sure that everyone who sits next to me on the train would tell you they are glad they can avoid getting whacked by my outstretched arms as I turn the page.

    So on the whole, I think smartphones are an exceedingly streamlined way to enjoy your morning commute. But RSS readers definitely help.

  • I rarely use my cellphone to get news, largely because my provider offers very basic online support with my current plan. Generally I only use my cellphone to check news if I want to check the headlines or find a sport's score.

    It will be interesting to see how the many new smart phones coming on the market will change how people access news. Most likely I my next cellphone will be more advanced and my reading habits will change as a result.

  • I can't imagine getting my news on a normal cellphone, but I wouldn't mind getting it on an Apple iPhone -- at least based on Apple's online demos and commercials. Whether the iPhone succeeds or not, it's already shown us that current technology is still pretty bad compared to what we'll all be using in a few years.

  • I recently began using my MotoQ for reading news while traveling. I agree with Kyle and Jordan that the presentation makes a significant difference. WSJ.com, boston.com, weather.com, maps.google.com on mobile are readable and useful. The point is that the print or full-fledged Web experience should not be replicated in the mobile environment. The content should wed with the delivery channel, its limitations and its opportunities.

    Satisfaction/frustration aside, the business model and opportunity offers an intriquing discussion. Some points:

    -- Mobile advertising is predicted to increase 100fold to US$40 billion in only a few years.
    -- The 20- and 30-somethings are comfortable and experienced in this medium. In many ways, the smart mobiles are the Swiss Army knives of that generation.
    -- Finally, I read a comment recently that media companies, specifically newspapers, may not become significantly profitable on the Web because traditionally Web content has been free. (This excludes some newspapers with specialized content like WSJ.) However, emerging business models favor content on mobile because, again traditionally, mobile content has been pay as you go. Put another way, Web content has not been monetized, and mobile content has been monetized. Thus, consumers are used to paying for mobile content.

  • Hi Mark;

    We at Adondo have developed some new technology; we can now scrape web pages and feeds, such as WSJ, NYT, Wired News etc. and deliver them via the audio channel.. to any telephone, (including cell phones) anywhere..

    And no Internet access is required.

    Bill Burke
    speechcontrols_@_cfl.rr.com
    Now playing, on any cell phone:
    Podcasts, Live Feeds, Blogs, and more ..

Comments are closed.

    Related Post
  1. The Best News Apps of 2017

    It’s highly unlikely – practically impossible – that a single day went by in 2017…

  2. 10 Things You Can Do Now to Up Your Social Media Game in 2018

    Are you in a newsroom right now? Take a look at your social media team.…

  3. In Remote African Tribes, Mobile Phones Are Amazing Tools, but There’s a Downside

    Mobile phones are everywhere. In fact, they may be nearly as common on the African…