• by February 8, 2001

The Newspaper Association of America has partnered with Aether Systems Inc., a provider of wireless data products and services, to launch a pilot project aimed at helping newspapers determine how best to serve their readers with mobile news and information.

The project combines the research and development expertise of both parties to establish a "Local News Gateway" -- a central index hosted at Aether's network operations center in Owings Mills, Md. -- through which users will be able to access content from multiple participating newspapers via phones and personal digital assistants.

Using the gateway, NAA and participating newspapers will explore how mobile users access news, weather, sports and other information as well as wireless advertising. Mobile device users will be able to link to the gateway from the wireless sites of participating newspapers, or may type the Web address of the gateway into their device browsers to access participating newspapers from a single site. Participating papers will track which sections of their wireless news sites are accessed most often and when, allowing them to determine what type of content is most valuable to consumers on a wireless platform.

"We're gratified that NAA can once again assist in guiding newspapers to the vanguard of applying new technology that serves both readers and advertisers," said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. "Mobile users in particular have shown strong interest in having instant access to relevant, timely and intensely local information. Rest assured that, whatever the delivery device, newspapers will be everywhere our users are."

The NAA New Media Federation's combined Business Development and Wireless Task Forces are guiding the project. "Given the likelihood that wireless distribution will change our businesses radically, we see this pilot as an essential step toward securing our place on these devices and better identifying user and advertiser needs," said Ian Murdock, digital media director of Hearst Newspapers and head of NAA's New Media Federation Business Development Task Force. "We are excited about the quality of the newspapers participating and believe that the pilot represents an outstanding learning opportunity for these companies as well as the rest of the NAA membership."

Participating newspapers include The New York Times, the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the (Los Angeles) Daily News, The Arizona Republic, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, The Daily Oklahoman's Oklahoman.com, The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, the St. Petersburg Times, The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, and The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va.

Also, throughout the nine-month pilot, the effectiveness and revenue potential of advertisements in the wireless medium will be gauged using ad- serving technology provided by WindWire, Inc., a wireless advertising company based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. WindWire will provide all development, implementation, hosting and trac