Hello to mobile gossip

The magazine has commissioned marketing agency Incentivated to build a celebrity news and photos service, initially based on SMS and MMS delivery but eventually comprising a WAP site offering content downloads.

Hello says it will drive traffic to the site by buying up banner ads on operator portals. People can sign up to either a subscription or pay-as-you-go option via hellomagazine.com, which has about three million visitors a month.

Hello reckons its readers are ripe for a bit of mobile content goss as they spend an average of £37 a month on mobile services - 118 per cent above the UK average (according to Ofcom numbers). Seventy-six per cent of its readers are under 40 years of age.