Make the ‘Mobile Migration’


A new survey released with this year’s report, produced with the Pew Internet & American Life Project, in association with the Knight Foundation, finds that nearly half of all Americans (47%) now get some form of local news on a mobile device.

And the move to mobile is only likely to grow. By January 2011, 7% of Americans reported owning some kind of electronic tablet. That was nearly double the number just four months earlier.

The full mobile survey of The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism: The State of the News Media 2011 just came out yesterday, but it fits well with something a group I’m on has been planning for months; a workshop on April 1.

It’s called “The Mobile Migration” and it is being co-sponsored again by the Online News Association (members get a discount) and the Freedom Forum’s Diversity Institute. Underwriting assistance is being provided by the Scripps Howard Foundation.

It is a day-long workshop at the John Seigenthaler Center on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville.

The April 1st date is by design and by humor; it’s roughly the anniversary of when the iPad went on sale in Apple retail stores (April 4). Yes, the iPad has been on the market for less than a year and now we have the iPad 2. The world is changing, but fast.

Here’s a look at what is on tap for the workshop.

Grant MoiseGrant Steven Moise, Digital General Manager for the Dallas Morning News, will talk about how the mobile web and tablet “apps” fit into the newspaper’s ambitious paid-content strategies that were just implemented last week.

What the Dallas Morning News is doing is one of the most closely watched paid-content initiatives of 2011.

Apps and HMTL 5 sites are key components of its plan to charge for high quality unique content. Moise will be giving a fresh report of the battlefront!

Bill TallentBill Tallent, CEO of Mercury Interactive, will talk about “Deciphering Disruption.”

Digital technologies have disrupted many industries and their established business models. While websites began the disruption of the printing medium, touch computers seem to be accelerating the disruptive effects. “Deciphering” the disruption is the key to building new competitive business models. This talk will focus on understanding why the disruption is accelerating, characteristics of consumers embracing the new medium, and ways to build the kind of applications that will maximize the revenues from news via touch screens.

Rex HammockRex Hammock of Hammock Inc. will do a presentation called: “The Reader Decides: How Magazines are Learning What Screen Publishing is All About”

The magazine industry is comprised of companies ranging from giant media corporations to   family-owned community monthlies targeting niches ranging from parents to pet-owners to indie-music loving hipsters. From multi-million dollar mega-apps to dorm-room developed content reading apps, the iPad is proving to be both a launch pad of opportunity and a landing pad for humbling crashes. What has year one of the iPad taught magazine publishers  that helps predict the future of screen-based media.

We’ll also hear:

Innovations from Africa: A look at case studies from the region on mobile and tablet strategies, Justin Arenstein, media strategist and consultant for Google & the International Center for Journalists.

Using a push-broadcasting system for community reporting and engagement from the folks at VozMob.

Registration information.

(For those who want to stay overnight, there is a special $109 room rate at the nearby Embassy Suites Hotel, 1811 Broadway, To get the discounted rate, call Mike Henry, senior sales manager at the Embassy Suites, 615-277-4964. Only a limited number of rooms are available at this rate … so hurry.)

If you have questions, please let me know. Hope to see you in Nashville!

Enhanced by Zemanta