• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, July 29, 2009

The Washington Post has rolled out a redesigned mobile site aimed at offering cell subscribers a more customized experience. The newspaper's new mobile presence features more intuitive navigation and a simplified structure focusing on five main sections: politics, business, metro, arts & living and sports.

Underscoring the Post's increased focus on its mobile arm, the site will be managed by two dedicated mobile editors responsible for updating content and managing breaking news alerts.

In the Washington, D.C. area, users will have access to customized weather, breaking sports scores and top regional news stories. Coming later in 2009 are e-commerce services that enable people to make restaurant reservations, buy movie tickets and other transactions as well as get real-time traffic information via Google maps and GPS technology.

"The look and feel is completely revamped and is specific to a user's device," said Guy Vidra, head of business development and emerging media at Washington Post Digital. So, for instance, the iPhone version will be closer to the PC-based site while users on regular cell phones will see a more scaled-down version that is better suited to their devices.

Vidra added that the Post's new mobile site was built completely in-house, "which lends a ton of flexibility on both the front end and back end for us." The newspaper's mobile site had 962,000 unique users in May, more than doubling its audience in the last year, according to Vidra. Goli Sheikholeslami, general manager of Washington Post Digital said in a statement that building out mobile services is a top priority for the company.

On board as launch sponsor for the mobile site is Amtrak, running a campaign created by Mobext, the mobile marketing unit of Havas Digital.