American Consolidated Media is proud to announce it is currently in the beginning stages of developing its first mobile newspaper application through a partnership with vendor, Verve.
The project is currently in beta test right now, as ACM and Verve will develop a mobile newspaper application for one ACM website.
The ACM website for which the mobile newspaper app will be developed is the Cecil Whig’s, http://www.cecildaily.com. It was determined that the Cecil Whig would serve as the beta test site due to the fact its website has the highest mobile traffic in ACM.
The Cecil Whig app will be developed for both the iTunes App store and Google Play. The app will also be available in mobile phone and tablet versions. The app will be free to download, and will feature the latest news, sports and other information from the past 72 hours.
Once the beta test launch of the Cecil Whig’s app is complete, ACM will consider partnering with Verve to launch three more test sites — one each for the Southwest, Superior and Ohio regions this summer.
After the second phase of the beta test is complete, ACM will determine whether or not to roll out the mobile newspaper app platform for all its websites.
The launch of the mobile newspaper app will not add any additional workloads to the newsrooms of ACM. The app is updated through dedicated and determined RSS feeds.
Pino Shah, corporate digital director for ACM, is serving as project manager for the mobile newspaper app program, with assistance from Micah Moore, a member of the ACM digital team, and Rick Rogers, corporate operations director.
For more on Verve, see below:
• Verve Publisher powers the mobile content businesses for many of the top media companies in the U.S. Our publishing technology is an elegant scalable solution that can deliver high-quality, fully-featured, robust mobile web sites and native applications (iOS, Android and Windows) for publishers in a matter of days.
• Publishers using the Verve Publisher platform also have access to the Verve Ad Manager, providing them with a full package of publishing and monetization tools from a single vendor.
• In addition, the Verve Advertising Resource Center gives your sales teams web-based tools to sell more, including case studies, templates, sample pitch books, and more.
To see an example of a Verve-developed newspaper app, see the screenshots below from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This app can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store or Google Play by searching “stltoday.”
For questions on this program, email Pino Shah, corporate digital director, at pino@amconmedia.com.