How newspapers are adapting to a mobile audience
The representatives of two newspaper chains discussed the challenges newsrooms face because of increasing mobile audiences.
Ben Vankat, online editor of the Omaha World-Herald, owned by BH Media, and Damon Kiesow, head of mobile strategy for McClatchy newspapers, made their remarks at an Oct. 30 session of the Mobile Me & You conference at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Vankat noted that during the last year, the World-Herald’s mobile traffic took over the desktop audience. That change in audience traffic has been swift — making it more important for newspapers to focus more on attracting and keeping the mobile audience, he said.
Yet, even though more than 60 percent of the audience is mobile, newsrooms can’t yet ignore print, which is responsible for a big part of newspaper revenue, Kiesow said. Technology is holding newsrooms back because most newspapers have content management systems that are print centered he said.
Kiesow and Vankat agreed that it’s important to put more effort in the mobile design because that’s where the audience traffic is. Vankat bemoaned the fact that every newspaper app looks the same, especially the home page. He said the World-Herald is working on an app redesign that will be more attractive.
Kiesow cited the New York Post as an example of a newspaper that has an attractive mobile layout.
Kiesow said for mobile audiences, the priority is pretty simple: “I want to find my content quicker.”
