CEO Paul Reddick on the "extraordinary opportunity" offered by mobile.
Handmark CEO Paul Reddick told the M-Publishing conference in London today that "it takes more than an iPhone app" for publishers to make the most of mobile.
"It's also very important to get that app distributed, and make sure that you have means to make money, and means to continue to innovate."
Reddick said that people are consuming more news than ever from multiple sources nowadays, boosted by the growth in smartphones, which people are using as a primary source for accessing news.
"Your customers are gonna be on mobile, if you're a media company," said Reddick.
However, his main point was that news publishers can't just have iPhone tunnel vision when making mobile apps.
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"If you build just for one platform, it's almost like someone making a TV programme and only making it work on just an LG TV," he said.
"You cannot ignore Nokia. We call Nokia the sleeping giant, which was really awoken by Apple." Reddick also talked about the size and "phenomenal" pace of growth of Android.
Reddick outlined some of the key considerations for publishers when building their mobile strategies, starting with 'Why am I doing this?'.
"You want to make money," he said. "Make money in ways you may not have been able to make happen online." That means a combination of advertising, cross-selling and premium revenues.
"I don't think anyone can predict with confidence what proportion of the revenues is going to come from advertising, and what's going to come from the pockets of consumers," said Reddick.
He said this is why publishers should work with partners capable of delivering both - as Handmark aims to do for its clients like the Evening Standard.
Reddick said publishers also need to decide which of their content assets should be taken to mobile. Time sensitivity and convenience were prime considerations.
Reddick also talked tech, and the raging debate around native apps versus mobile web. "Don't bet against the web long-term, but don't wait for it. Apps are winning big now, so you need an application," he said.
He also said that Handmark sees the iPad as an important device for its clients, because some of their customers will be using it. "But I would say not to do that as a displacement for what people are doing on mobile phones," he warned.
Reddick also dealt with how publishers should drive distribution of their apps.
"It can be intimidating. It's one thing to get your application into a store, but it's another to get it noticed, downloaded and used. You have to use every trick in the book."
For news publishers, he said that using their existing channels is important - the Evening Standard devoted full-page ads to its new range of mobile apps when they launched last week.
Overall, Reddick said publishers should have a goal of getting 50% of their online readers to use their mobile apps or sites.
Reddick gave some stats too contrasting app and mobile web usage of news services.
"People on mobile web may access anywhere from seven to 15 times a month, but on apps, people are accessing anywhere from 50 to 100 times a month, and some applications do well over 200 times a month."
Will it always be one app per media entity or publication? "If anything, I see it fragmenting more down to special interests, as opposed to just aggregating it all up," he said.
