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December 31, 2008 in Blog   |   No Comments

CellSigns awarded 2008 NAA Innovative Operations award

CellSigns wins award for on-demand Mobile Alert System
with the Palm Beach Post newspaper

By LaShell Stratton

At The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Fla., taking a good idea and making it even better is a strategy for success. Since 2004, the Post has built on previous award-winning online products to create even more innovative digital media systems.

This year was no exception. The Post adapted a classified advertising technology, Classifieds on the Go, that it developed with mobile vendor CellSigns (www.cellsigns.com) and created an on-demand mobile alert system to notify users about hurricane and tropical storm activity in the Atlantic Ocean during hurricane season from June through November.

“One of the responsibilities of newspapers is to help protect people and their property,” says Dan Shorter, former general manager of PalmBeachPost.com.

In January, Shorter was named president of digital media at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

Classifieds on the Go, which won a 2007 Innovative Operations Award, allows readers to access classified ads on demand by typing a text message code in their cell phones (“Good Ideas,” April 2007, p. 52).

Last year wasn’t the first time the Post was recognized for its mobile technology. The newspaper earned recognition as a NAA Best Practices Award winner in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The Post brainstormed other practical uses for the Classifieds on the Go technology, says Gina C. Wilcox, digital operations director. The Post also wanted to build a system that advertisers could sponsor, which led Shorter and his award-winning team to the mobile alerts.

The Post development team realized that many residents rely on their cell phones to communicate and find information during storms so, in May 2007, it began working on the alert system.

Technical Manager Dale Swain wrote a PHP automated script for the newspaper’s server that monitors the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (www.noaa.gov) every five minutes for updates about hurricanes near South Florida. The script pulls key information, such as the hurricane’s wind speed, category, direction and speed of movement, and translates it into XML before sending it to CellSigns.

The files are then dropped into CellSigns’ database, and the hurricane data are placed into fields. When mobile device users dial the word STORM to the Post’s mobile short code, they receive a text message about the hurricane’s progression. Mobile users also can view the newspaper’s STORM WAP site, which contains breaking news, live radar images and more. Users can access the alert system and the WAP site even if they don’t subscribe to the newspaper.

As an added precaution against failure during hurricanes, CellSigns placed the alert system on corporate servers outside Florida.

The final product took about three months to develop, Wilcox says, and a few weeks later, the newspaper sold a sizable sponsorship package to Publix Super Markets Inc. As part of the package, Publix could include its brand as well as a link to its Web site with alert text messages, says Wilcox. The package also includes promotions in other STORM services such as subscriber-based mobile alerts, the newspaper’s weekly HTML newsletter containing preparedness tips and advisory e-mails that are automatically generated every time the National Hurricane Center issues an update on active tropical activity.

The on-demand alert system can be easily adapted by other newspapers, whether they are in the Midwest and want to alert residents about tornadoes, or are on the West Coast and want to send updates about earthquakes, says Bill Bolger, vice president of production at The Indianapolis Star and a member of NAA’s Printing Technology Committee, which helped to judge the I.O. Awards.

“It probably didn’t hurt that we had tornadoes around here about two weeks before I reviewed the entries,” Bolger says. “I looked at this and thought, ‘We could use something like that here.’ ”

April 20, 2008 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

CellSigns awarded 2008 NAA Innovative Operations award for on-demand Mobile Alert System with the Palm Beach Post newspaper

PHILADELPHIA, April 8, 2008 – At The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Fla., taking a good idea and making it even better is a strategy for success. Since 2004, the Post has built on previous award-winning online products to create even more innovative digital media systems.

This year was no exception. The Post adapted a classified advertising technology, Classifieds on the Go, that it developed with mobile vendor CellSigns (www.cellsigns.com) and created an on-demand mobile alert system to notify users about hurricane and tropical storm activity in the Atlantic Ocean during hurricane season from June through November.

“One of the responsibilities of newspapers is to help protect people and their property,” says Dan Shorter, former general manager of PalmBeachPost.com. In January, Shorter was named president of digital media at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

Classifieds on the Go, which won a 2007 Innovative Operations Award, allows readers to access classified ads on demand by typing a text message code in their cell phones (“Good Ideas,” April 2007, p. 52). Last year wasn’t the first time the Post was recognized for its mobile technology. The newspaper earned recognition as a NAA Best Practices Award winner in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The Post brainstormed other practical uses for the Classifieds on the Go technology, says Gina C. Wilcox, digital operations director. The Post also wanted to build a system that advertisers could sponsor, which led Shorter and his award-winning team to the mobile alerts.

The Post development team realized that many residents rely on their cell phones to communicate and find information during storms so, in May 2007, it began working on the alert system.

Technical Manager Dale Swain wrote a PHP automated script for the newspaper’s server that monitors the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (www.noaa.gov) every five minutes for updates about hurricanes near South Florida. The script pulls key information, such as the hurricane’s wind speed, category, direction and speed of movement, and translates it into XML before sending it to CellSigns.

The files are then dropped into CellSigns’ database, and the hurricane data are placed into fields. When mobile device users dial the word STORM to the Post’s mobile short code, they receive a text message about the hurricane’s progression. Mobile users also can view the newspaper’s STORM WAP site, which contains breaking news, live radar images and more. Users can access the alert system and the WAP site even if they don’t subscribe to the newspaper.

As an added precaution against failure during hurricanes, CellSigns placed the alert system on corporate servers outside Florida.

The final product took about three months to develop, Wilcox says, and a few weeks later, the newspaper sold a sizable sponsorship package to Publix Super Markets Inc. As part of the package, Publix could include its brand as well as a link to its Web site with alert text messages, says Wilcox. The package also includes promotions in other STORM services such as subscriber-based mobile alerts, the newspaper’s weekly HTML newsletter containing preparedness tips and advisory e-mails that are automatically generated every time the National Hurricane Center issues an update on active tropical activity.

The on-demand alert system can be easily adapted by other newspapers, whether they are in the Midwest and want to alert residents about tornadoes, or are on the West Coast and want to send updates about earthquakes, says Bill Bolger, vice president of production at The Indianapolis Star and a member of NAA’s Printing Technology Committee, which helped to judge the I.O. Awards.

“It probably didn’t hurt that we had tornadoes around here about two weeks before I reviewed the entries,” Bolger says. “I looked at this and thought, ‘We could use something like that here.’ ”

April 8, 2008 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

Classifieds on the Go - Mobile Classifieds

MOBILE CLASSIFIEDS | THE PALM BEACH POST, WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.

BY GINA ROLLINS

Dan Shorter has spent the last three years finding ways to make palmbeachpost.com’s classifieds easier to use.

That search has led him to his latest project, Classifieds on the Go, a technology that makes all classified ads available on cell phones and personal digital assistants that use Sprint, Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile and Alltel networks. Users can look for a specific classified ad or do keyword searches of all classifieds and display ads, currently about 10,000 items.

The venture, which began last November, is part of a broader media strategy to reposition the Post in a rapidly evolving market.

“We have to capture our rightful share of the mobile audience or we’ll be left out in the cold,” says Shorter, general manager of palmbeachpost.com, adding he hopes Classifieds on the Go will attract people not currently

reading the newspaper. “We’re using mobile technology to create new value so we won’t be just a print company with a Web site, but really a multimedia business.”

This focus on mobile technology follows investments in the Post’s online portal for enhanced ad placement, search and display features, as well as a network of ATM-like kiosks in malls and shopping centers (“Convenient Classifieds,“ April 2006, p. 58). Shorter and colleagues Gina Wilcox, online development director; Robb Olsen, vice president of advertising; and Michelle Licudine, Internet marketing manager, have worked closely on all these ventures, which earned the paper recognition as a Best Practices Award winner in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Classifieds to Go also won a 2007 Digital Edge Award for Best Advertising Program in the 75,000 to 250,000 circulation category.

The Post’s pursuit of cutting-edge technology caught the eye of Chuck Peters, president and chief executive officer of The Gazette Co. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and chairman of NAA’s Newspaper Systems Committee, which helped judge the I.O. Awards. “They’re moving along the right path, are very innovative, and [moving] in the direction we all should be going,” he says.

Mobile users access Classifieds to Go by entering an identification number for a specific ad or a phrase, such as “three-bedroom house,” then text-messaging it to the Post’s mobile short code. Searchers will then receive a text message of up to 160 characters with information about their request.

Those with Web-enabled cell phones have the option of linking to Web sites and images. When a search returns too many results, the user is asked to refine it. A house search, for instance, could be narrowed with an additional term, such as “fireplace.”

The Post partnered with CellSigns (www.cellsigns.com), Shorter says, and paid the company “a few tens of thousands” of dollars to develop the technology. The product is on track to generate $1 million in revenue during its first year, Shorter adds. Advertisers pay a small premium for mobile access.

Traffic for the service is “thin” at present, but Shorter believes it will only blossom. “There’s as much, if not more, potential audience and revenue as on the Internet,” he says.

CELLSIGNS CONTACT

Visit CellSigns or call 877-747-9274.

April 21, 2007 in Press Releases   |   No Comments