The Independent mobile site will help the newspaper to capitalise on the immense growth of the mobile internet, extend its reach, diversify its revenue streams and attract new mobile customers to the brand and content.
The deal is the first to result from YOC’s acquisition of Bluestar Mobile, combining Bluestar’s customer portfolio and range of services with YOC’s technology offering, media network and ad sales expertise. Bluestar will design, build and manage the mobile site for the newspaper, creating mobile marketing campaigns to generate awareness and drive traffic to the mobile site, greatly strengthening its position within the publishing industry as a mobile marketing specialist.
Said Bill Swanson, digital MD at The Independent: “The growth of the internet has invoked an enormous change in the world of publishing, and now the ubiquity of mobile handheld devices and the evolution of the commercial model surrounding them has finally made the medium a viable one for publishers. We’re keen to meet this evolution head on with the launch of our mobile site; allowing our readers to access our news and content anytime, anywhere. We see Bluestar and YOC’s new collaborative approach as the right combination to help us do this.”
Bluestar Mobile will enable The Independent to enter the mobile market by creating a mobile portal that will allow its current 240,000 mobile browsers to access The Independent’s content on the move via a dedicated mobile site. The mobile site will provide content tailored specifically for the mobile channel and will enable The Independent to cater for its readers’ increasingly time pressed and mobile lifestyles, as well as allowing it to extend into new demographics. Adverts on the site will be carefully targeted to the individual reader, offering advertisers a healthy return on investment and boosting advertising revenues for The Independent.