Washington Post mobile edition: AWOL book section and a vexing Catch-22?
The Washington Post’s mobile edition apparently isn’t carrying a link to the Sunday book section seen at Washingtonpost.com. Or is it just well hidden?
Unlike the New York Times, the Post even lacks a search box for those of us reading it on cellphones or PDAs.
So I can’t just type “books” and get around the lack of a book-section link, a flaw that the mobile Times also shares. At least the search trick works with the Times.
Annoying cuts at ends of stories
The mobile Post’s AWOL book section, or at least its well-hidden one, isn’t the only hassle. The paper is now inflicting a nasty Catch-22 on readers without hardware powerful enough for the main Washingtonpost.com site. I’m starting to see the following notice at the ends of stories at mobile.washingtonpost.com:
“…for the entire article visit www.washington post.com”
The Post means it. Within the mobile edition, the paper chops off the last few paragraphs; just compare the partial screenshot above to the end of story in the usual Post edition for desktops and laptops. So what gives? Will the Post’s services for cellphone and PDA readers further erode, with more missing paragraphs? Anorexic mobile editions, by the way, are hardly a Post-only phenomenon, and I’ll welcome your own pet examples from other papers, beyond the New York Times.
Deep in Catch-22 territory
And now for the Catch-22 of the mobile Post: I cannot read the regular Post edition on either my Palm TX or my DT 375 Windows CE tablet. The Post just redirects my Palm to the mobile edition if I type in washingtonpost.com, and my DT 375 can’t get along with the password scheme I need for full access to the Post’s regular online edition—besides which the pages are too bloated for mobile use. So basically the Washington Post is telling me, “Tough luck, buddy. You’re just gonna have to use your desktop.”
Bizarrely, I thought that the smarter “newspapers” just might focus more and more on the first syllable of the word and adjust to the needs of busy people on the move or at least eager for breaks from their desktops. Time to use mobile editions for more than “bait-and-switch” marketing? Of course, maybe “B&S” isn’t accurate if nothing exists online for thousands of mobile readers to switch to. I’d hope that corporate absent-mindedness, nothing nefarious, is at work here.
I’m going to query Jim Brady, a pretty clueful guy who’s executive editor at Washingtonpost.com, and see just what the devil the Post is trying to accomplish with all that paragraph-chopping. Will the Post kindly give us a full-service, well-organized mobile edition, complete with a book section and full-length stories? I’d even, gasp, be willing to pay a little for access.
How to monetize mobile editions
Better, though, in the wake of the New York Times’ failed Select experiment, the Post mobile edition should stick to the ad-supported model but with a twist. It could allow customers to type in their ZIP codes and, through the magic of mobile-friendly cookies, start getting extra-local news and a mostly text-based section listing bargains from stores near them. The Times mobile edition can do cookies well. So could the Post’s.
Perhaps a brief questionnaire, used in registration for those wanting local news, could also ask, “What kinds of products are you most interested in seeing information on from stores near you?”
And then, by way of both text and banner ads, the Post could oblige. There might also be a little search box for bargain hunters.
Not just shrunken banner ads, please
The reborn mobile edition would still play up national news, but these new local links would add to the paper’s appeal. The words “Northern Virginia headlines” would appear above the home page links to the five top NOVA stories, and a “more” would direct readers to other articles.
Perhaps the Post would use a similar approach for a NoVA advertising section clearly labeled as ad-related.
When will the Post get it? A newspaper can do a lot more with mobile editions than just run shrunken banner ads from sponsors.
Small photos accompanying at least the major stories “inside” would also help. The New York Times uses them.
For the lead story of the day, I’d even go with a little picture on the home page of the Post’s mobile edition. Most WiFi is easily fast enough for compact images.
Back to the issue of the book section
As for the book section, links could go directly from the section in the mobile edition to ads with order forms for e- and p-books.
The irony is that the Post book-section editor recently said the paper was making good progress with ads in her section, all the more reason why it’s so disappointing that Book World is apparently AWOL from the mobile edition.
I wouldn’t expect an avalanche of revenue, but over time the effort would pay off as E won additional converts among readers on the move—both for newspaper reading and e-book reading.
Reading off PDA and cellphone screens isn’t for everyone, but younger readers with good eyes will appreciate the service. And don’t advertisers prefer “young” anyway? We’re not just talking books, by the way. How about more popular offerings such as sports scores?
Cross-promo with mobile vendors
But how to spread the word about improved local news, a real book section and the other wrinkles of the reborn local edition?
If I ran the Times, the Post or another national newspaper, I’d promote the mobile edition aggressively and offer some free ads to cellphone and PDA makers in return for promo at their end—such as written literature in product boxes and factory-supplied bookmarks within the hardware’s built-in browsers.
But first give mobile readers some decent editions to link to!
D.C. paper loses to New York—even though I live in Northern Virginia
Meanwhile, despite the mobile New York Times’ lack of a link to its book section, I’ve spent many pleasurable hours reading the edition—including the magazine. Remember, too, that, via the search box trick, the mobile Times book section is available to me after all.
In fact on Sundays I devote more time to the New York paper than to the electronic Post, run out of Arlington, Virginia, just a few miles from me. That might be true even on weekdays.
The big issue isn’t content; it’s presentation.
I’d rather not have to park myself in front of my desktop, and as for the paper edition—well, like thousands of other Post readers, I no longer subscribe because the pulped-wood version is too full of material irrelevant to me.
How the Post can win me back
But I’ll be all eyes for an improved mobile edition, ads and all—including a directory of local goods and services, as noted, and, yes, book advertising.
While I doubt that mobile readers are more than a small fraction of the Post’s current readership, their numbers will multiply if the newspaper woos them well. And meanwhile, if the Post has done a good job integrating its E and P editions, the changes I’ve suggested won’t be that expensive. How about it, Post? Same for other newspapers.
Letting other mobile fans know that the edition exists, period
Now to address another issue: Promo of mobile.washingtonpost.com via Washingtonpost.com, so people know that the mobile edition exists, period.
The Post should stop burying its mobile-edition link at the bottom of the Washingtonpost.com home page—and displaying it in small type at that! Can’t the paper do a better job of letting new visitors know of the mobile option? Including those from regions of the world where Web-surfing via cell phones is more common than in the States? The Post probably wouldn’t make enjoy much ad revenue from overseas readers, but would elevate its international standing. Understandably, the domestic market is the paper’s main concern.
A final irony
Amusingly the home page of Washingtonpost.com home carries a sponsored link to a MobileTechnology blog where the top entry this morning says, “You might be one of the Digitivity Denizens. A term coined by advertising agency JWT, these are the people who see their cell phones as an extension of themselves, whose online and offline lives are co-mingled and who would chose a Wi-Fi connection over TV any day.”
Bingo! I hate the marketspeak, but like the idea. A prime audience for the Post’s mobile edition? Along with RSS, the mobile edition option should get prime display on the home page of washingtonpost.com. Yes, it would also be nice if the Post improved its RSS service, too–perhaps the topic of a future TeleBlog post.
A detail: The Post is apparently using a contractor, in some way, to do the mobile edition (“Powered by Crisp Wireless”). The same suggestions applying to the Post would apply to the contractor—whoever is responsible.
Disclosure: I approached the Post some months ago, in connection with the OpenReader initiative in which I’m no longer involved (even though OpenReader founder Jon Noring is very welcome to contribute to the TeleBlog, just as other top e-book experts are). My suggestion was that the Post distribute mobile editions not just on the Web but also as e-book-like files, so people could enjoy them away from home or public WiFi connections. I still have that vision, except I believe the newspapers should instead use the IDPF‘s .epub format.
Update, September 26, 12:30 a.m. Washington, D.C. time: I’ve made a number of tweaks and additions to the original post.
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