The future of media rests in your kids’ hands — quite literally. The mobile phone is fast becoming their first screen for news and entertainment, and this will reshape the newspaper industry as we know it.
You can see it happening: Subscriptions to traditional print newspapers are down while Web sites and blogs are gaining readership. Soon, more and more young people will leapfrog over the PC straight to mobile — a phenomenon already apparent from Asia to Africa. Traditional media properties that delay in implementing a mobile strategy will most certainly take a hit.
Speed is Life
Teens and young adults, weaned on a steady diet of YouTube clips and TiVo, want everything to be immediate and seamless. They expect access to information five times faster than previous generations. The use of technology isn’t just a habit; it’s a reflex. They don’t even think about it. All their news, entertainment, and communication come digitally. They are themselves newsmasters—honing RSS feeds processing multiple streams of information. Naturally, they’ll want this while on the go as well.
Therein lies the appeal of the cell phone, enabler of the 24/7 social life. A study of 13 to 17 year olds by Topix found that of all the gadgets and devices available today, the cell phone is the most essential: 51 percent of teens said they “absolutely could not live without” them. The teens also said that texting was the number one thing they did on their phones, a result mimicked in Fleishman-Hillard’s own research. They text faster than you can type (being all thumbs is an asset!). Rather than talk to a friend in front of adults, a teen girl may send an SMS to a friend from two feet away. After they max out their computer time, they head upstairs and stay connected from their phones. When they sleep, it’s under their pillow or on the nightstand.
And just because kids are in school doesn't mean their phones are off. Thirty-eight percent of teens surveyed still text their friends, and thirty percent play video games on their phones while at school. Texting behind the wheel has become a major problem for young drivers. A survey by Nationwide shows that 60 percent of teens talked and another 36 percent texting while driving; 47 percent said they did so in order to stay connected with their friends.
Indeed, the idea of putting down the phone can be incomprehensible to a young person; it would be like detaching their arm. Like a vintage dress or an Abercrombie t-shirt, customized wallpapers or ringbacks can express both individuality and affiliation. Teens also want the convenience afforded by advanced technologies.
Thus, today’s youth are aspirational in their tastes. Much of the iPhone buzz was fueled online by kids who couldn’t even afford one yet. The Blackberry Curve topped the Christmas lists of many teens and college students last year, and they are already lusting after the new Blackberry Bold. As smartphones get sleeker and less expensive, we can expect more and more young people to have such devices, meaning a better mobile Web experience and bigger numbers for content providers and advertisers.
New research from MultiMedia Intelligence claims that the number of U.S. mobile subscribers age 12-17 crossed 16 million in 2007, up 12 percent from the previous year, and will reach 17 million by 2012. More than half of this age bracket has a cell phone by age 13, with the vast majority subscribing by 17. “At that age group there’s going to be a saturation point where you’re hard-pressed to gain additional subscribers,” said Frank Dickson of MultiMedia Intelligence. As nearly all kids have cell phones, and at younger and younger ages, their “mobile reflexes” will only become stronger.
Phoning It In
Young people are not afraid of technology. “This is a group that has never known the world without mobile phones, and they've come to expect a lot from their devices,” said Mark Donovan of research firm M:Metrics. “For just about every category of mobile media activity, if you look at the 13- to 17-year-old bracket they're doing more things with their phones than the average phone user.”
Chronic chroniclers of their lives, youth often use their phones as digital cameras, snapping photos and sending them to Flickr or Facebook. According to a recent M:Metrics survey, forty-seven percent of teenagers take photos with their mobile device—twice the industry average. Young adults also access social networks, share pictures and videos, play games, and browse the mobile Web a lot more than their older (less tech-savvy) counterparts. Indeed, information is social currency for this group.
Constant access to news, pictures, videos—what’s happening NOW—is as imperative as access to people. A recent M:Metrics report found that employed college students are forty-two percent more likely to use mobile e-mail than the typical subscriber (that’s 23 percent more likely than full-time workers). Working students download mobile games and personalize content on their phones twice as often as do other users.
“Students who work as well are time-deprived. Highly personalized news and entertainment feeds could be interesting if done correctly,” Seamus McAteer of M:Metrics. Indeed, college students cram their content consumption into all their “down” time—riding the elevator, waiting for friends, in line at the store.
Even e-mail is too slow for them—it’s the new snail mail. According to the AP-AOL Instant Messaging Trends Survey, nearly three in four teens send more IMs than emails, compared to one in four adults. They IM about everything from homework help to prom dates, often saying things they would not say in person. Now we are seeing mobile IM growing among teens. One in three teen respondents in the AOL survey sent IMs from their cell phones. The proliferation of QWERTY devices and smartphones will just grow this trend.
Another trend to take note of is mobile video, which is on the rise in the form of short “snack” clips of under 3 minutes. According to OTX, 41 percent of teens surveyed have video-downloading capability on their cell phones, and approximately half of those teens are actually downloading and viewing videos. Among these teens, music videos are the most watched type (67 percent), followed by user-generated content (27 percent), full-length TV shows (24 percent) and clips from TV shows (24 percent). Some 31 percent of teens who watch video on their cell phones reported that their consumption of TV, DVDs, and movies has not decreased. “As media companies move into the mobile space, it's critically important to understand how the teen demographic uses mobile technology for entertainment and the extent to which this usage affects their other media and leisure time behaviors,” said Bruce Friend of OTX.
The Next Generation Newspaper
So where does this leave traditional media like newspapers? In a very good spot, actually. They are still trusted sources of information and have a brand name to leverage. The key will be to reposition themselves to remain relevant in a mobile environment.
Now, newspapers have to be more than just passive providers of news. They have to engage readers according to their areas of interest, provide them with new avenues to express themselves and enable them to interact both with both you and other readers.
Citizen Journalism
One way to engage young people is by letting them do your reporting for you. Young people have always been “citizen journalists,” writing, producing and starring in their own content. This user-generated content (UGC) lets them broadcast their creative skills and show they are in the know. Information—from serious news to idle gossip—is the social currency of youth. Citizen journalism is just what they’ve been doing all along.
This trend is a natural fit for mobile, and news organizations are beginning to leverage it. CNN’s iReport lets viewers send in cell phone shots to report on breaking news, as does CBS News’ new cbseyemobile.com. The Straits Times, Singapore’s largest English language daily, created STOMP (Straits Times Online Mobile Print), which publishes interactive content. Through their shortcode, readers can “talk” to the newspaper on any topic, or send their thoughts, pictures, news tips and clips through SMS and MMS. STOMP is even running an “MMSing Contest,” asking readers to tape themselves singing with their phones and message in the video to enter.
Closer to home, MTV created a “Street Team” of young journalists to report on the 2008 election as part of its Choose or Lose youth voting initiative. In January, weekly reports from each of the 51 members, consisting of blog entries, videos, photos, and podcasts, began appearing on a custom mobile site, the existing MTV Mobile, the ThinkMTV social network, and the 1,800+ sites in the Associated Press Online Video Network.
What’s the Score?
Speaking of teams, sports content is very popular on mobile. Fans want to know the score as it happens. In fact, ESPN’s mobile site got more hits than its Web site one day last year. Newspapers could deliver local or high school sports scores straight to the handset. Take this “what’s the score” principle and apply it to other content: What else would young people want to know in real time? Can you provide it?
Weather, for example, or school closings. Daily mobile comics or Sudoku-o-go. Local search will also be key (see “The Tipping Point for Mobile Local Search” ). Newspapers that have an events section or nightlife reviews can make them mobile with a location-based service such as Buzzd or Socialight. Both sites enable users to find places to eat, play or drink nearby and read reviews about them.
Mobile classifieds, listings and personals are also a huge opportunity for newspapers. According to M:Metrics, mobile surfers spend an average of 1 hour, 39 minutes at Craigslist.org, more than any other site; eBay comes in second at 1 hour, 26 minutes. The young and loan-laden are heavy users of these sites—trolling for a couch for the dorm or used Chemistry books. Young grads would also be interested in job listings they can check throughout the day. Newspaper can make these mobile through a simple WAP (mobile Web) site, or a mobile widget that constantly sends updates to a users’ idle screen in real time. (For more on mobile advertising, see “Mobile Advertising: The Next Big Thing Hasn’t Arrived (But It’s On Its Way)”.)
Footing the Bill
Will young people pay for this content? Unlikely. This is the Napster generation – used to downloading content from peer-to-peer networks or getting it from friends. Subscription fees are a great way to turn them off entirely. What they can’t get from you, they’ll get from the guy down the street for free. This is why mobile music plans haven’t been successful thus far, and why you probably haven’t heard of MTV’s subscription monthly subscription channel “Bananas.”
So how can media properties stay viable on mobile? How have they always? Advertising. Mobile models are already emerging, from banners to branded content, which will support the future of mobile content. And the good news is that teens are more willing to accept marketing on their handsets. Over half of college students said they would accept ads if they were to get something free in return, according to a Ball State University study.
Services such as Mobile Campus are using ad support to everyone’s advantage – delivering relevant, real-time information to those who opt in. With the free service, students can find out that a test is rescheduled, a kick-off is rained out, or the local deli is offering 2-for-1 deals. Last year, 80 percent of the freshman class at Florida State chose to join.
Major magazine publishers Hearst, Conde Nast and Wenner are all beefing up ads with mobile touchpoints, as well as some newspapers. Readers can get a coupon by snapping a photo of a barcodes or text-to-buy a product through a shortcode. This provides a nice value-add to advertisers at no cost; brands such as Estée Lauder, Target, Unilever, and Burger King have all given it a whirl. Mobile coupon redemption among youth has been charted at around 40 percent and is being adopted by local franchises of Subway and Papa Johns, even many mom-and-pop stores.
Key Questions
From editorial to classifieds to advertising, there are many ways to appeal to youth on mobile. The key is to be engaging and useful. When thinking about your own strategy, ask these questions about your young readers:
- Where are they?
- What are they engaged with right now?
- How can our paper add value to this experience?
- How can we partner with young people in their world?
- How can we help activate their individual experiences?
Young people own mobile; it is their medium. Want a litmus test for your ideas? Ask your kids. Better yet, text them.
Allison Mooney is Senior Director, Mobile Insights for Fleishman-Hillard Youth and Mobile, www.nextgreatthing.com. More...