Das die Zeitung USA Today sein Angebot mit mobilen Services anreichert, hatte ich ja schon berichtet. Bei DM News findet sich noch ein Beitrag über den Eintritt dieser Zeitung in den Markt der mobilen Suche.

USA TODAY launched a mobile search platform that combines print news with text messaging and interactive online ads. Ads in certain sections of the daily paper’s print edition will feature a number that readers can text message with requests for up-to-date information. Replies to these text messages feature a sponsored interactive ad. “It’s basically a mobile search platform and what it allows us to do is take a non-interactive platform, a newspaper, and make the print product interactive through the use of text messaging and short codes,” said Matt Jones, director of mobile strategy and operations at Gannett Digital, a unit of USA Today parent Gannett Co. The service allows access to real-time news at low or no cost to the reader. The company already has advertisers sponsoring content. “I think that a lot of marketers are thinking of how they can best leverage the 230 million mobile phones used in this country,” he said.

Peggy Anne Salz von MocoNews dazu:

But the real news is not the service; it’s the bold move of a brand into the mobile search/mobile advertising space. It makes sense – and it’s been done before in the Internet. Brands have the content and the traffic – and if they partner with search engine providers (Gannett has a stake in mobile search and messaging company 4INFO) they can cover all the bases and collect all the revenues. I know of other media brands gearing up to follow this lead – and it will be interesting over the next months to see how they take on mobile search companies that move on their turf. And a word to white label providers: Maybe a singular focus on mobile operators needs a rethink as more media companies line up for a piece of the action.