ABC News is pushing its mobile Web site to everyone - including its own employees. MobileContentToday obtained this internal memo from ABC News detailing the tools available for BlackBerry and iPhone users and how to get them. The memo says that in December, traffic to the site was up 12% and video views grew 31% over November despite the lack of promotion.
It also encourages everyone to try the new apps and get others to check them out as well.
Click continued to read the entire memo.
From: Westin, David
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 11:20 AM
To: ABCTV News ALL
Subject: ABC News on Blackberry and iPhone
All of us have read reports and seen for ourselves the rapid growth of news on mobile platforms of all sorts. What you may not have heard as much about is the leading position that ABC News has in delivering the news to mobile devices. For some time now, we've provided our video on cell phones through Verizon VCAST, MobiTV and Sprint. We reach 3.3M mobile phone subscribers.
Now, you can get the ABC News mobile website on your Blackberry through a new application that allows you to reach us with a single touch. If you go on the Internet on your Blackberry to http://m.abcnews.com you can download the icon, which will then reside on your Blackberry screen. Whenever you're on your Blackberry, you can go straight to ABC News by simply clicking on the icon. This (free) tool has already been downloaded by 70K people.
For those of you with an iPhone, there's a new application available for you as well. If you go on the Internet through Safari to http://abcnews.com/iphone, you'll get access to the application. By clicking on the "+" sign at the bottom of the screen and then pressing on the "add to home screen" option, you will have an ABC News icon join the other icons on your home screen. As you'll see, this new application is entirely video-based, loads quickly, and has remarkable quality.
Overall, we've seen traffic to our mobile web site grow 12% in December over November; video views were up 31%. And, let's be frank, that's without any real promotion. In the coming months, we will be looking for ways to take our growing light out from under the bushel basket. But you can start that process by trying the new applications and passing them along to others.
If you have any questions about getting the ABC News mobile website on your Blackberry or iPhone, please call Austin Vance in New York on extension XXXX.
