1. BEST PRACTICES:
MANAGING MOBILE CONTENT
BY DAVID ARKIN
GATEHOUSE MEDIA/NEWS& INTERACTIVE
Mobile content is a tricky animal and we have to look at the management of the
content in a very different way than we do with our websites. Here are three best
practices:
1. Direct feeds from your newspaper just don't work - for the most
part: While we believe that some feeds, like news and sports (as long as small
announcements aren't falling in those sections) are OK to come from your
website, there are other topics, like entertainment, which include too many long-
form features (like artist features) that just don't work on your mobile site. Why?
By looking at mobile analytics, readers in the entertainment category are much
more likely to click on to-go-and-do information and reviews opposed to long-
form features. Features is another good example of a direct feed that doesn't
work. Mobile readers likely want recipes, tips and other ideas they can store, but
aren't interested in that 20-inch feature on a chef. Consider when you're on the
move, what kind of quick content you want to digest.
2. Create specific mobile feeds: Categories like entertainment and business
are great examples where all of the content produced for your website will not
transition well to mobile. Consider if you are reading a mobile site, how
uninterested you would be in a business people in the news brief or an
announcement about a chamber mixer. That's fine content, but much more
appropriate for someone who is at a desktop and can explore many more sections
of your website and has more options they can make about content. Another
example would be creating an "editor's pick" section that you would select certain

2. stories to feed into your mobile site, a best-of your site, if you will. By creating
sections that are mobile only, allows a newspaper to pick content that just makes
sense for mobile. This can be done by creating sections in your backend that are
labeled just for mobile and are fed to your mobile site. When you publish a story
to your website, if it's appropriate for the web, simply move it to a mobile section
that will be fed to your mobile site. It's all about making smart decisions for both
platforms and automatic feeds don't always work.
3. More evening content: Analytics have told us that our traditional website
readers - isn't it funny to call website readers traditional? - want content at key
times throughout the day: 6-8 a.m., around noon and 4-5 p.m. Mobile readers
seem to want content during those times too, but also want content between 7-11
p.m., our analytics show. What does this mean? Newsrooms have to feed the 9-5
audience for sure, but need to find avenues to have a consistent flow during those
evening hours, a challenge for sure, since that's when many in of our newsrooms
are fully focused on putting out a print product. However, through a smart look at
all of your content, when it's being produced and what can fill those key gaps,
newsrooms can be successful with moving content during the evening. This takes
looking at content that is website appropriate and examining what has an
immediate need to go up and what can filter through the evening. Build a list of
regular-appearing content and when it could move in the 7-11 p.m. range. Also,
every day you should build a web budget that notes when that day's content,
especially those stories that are surprises, will go up and how that content can
feed an audience that wants content later in the day. It's a challenge for sure,
because news that breaks and that happens throughout the day, has to go up right
away. Finding a mix between what has to go up now and what can go up later in
the night, is tough, but jumping into a few tests will help your newsroom figure
out the right mix.
There's no doubt that mobile is our future, but the same way that we have worked
to understand readers of our traditional website, we have to do the same for this
growing and changing audience. Study, study, study, your analytics and make

3. shifts in newsroom workflow to make sure that your content is engaging and
connecting with that audience during the right time of the day.
David Arkin is the executive director of the News & Interactive Division for GateHouse Media