• Fortune , Friday, September 15, 2006 11:48 AM

News Corp. adds another youth-oriented brand--taking a 51 percent stake in Jamba, a company that sells ringtones, screensavers and other material for personalizing cell phones. Ringtones may be yesterday's hot thing, but Jamba's real appeal is its ability to reach hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide without being part of a walled garden of content that Fortune calls "so 2007." Now, if you want to play a game or watch a video clip on your cell phone, the easiest way is to scroll through a menu of choices provided by a wireless carrier. Content companies jockey for position on those screens, and industry executives say a good one can make or break a new mobile game. About 75 percent of all mobile content in the United States is purchased directly from the phone companies. Jamba gets around this by marketing directly to consumers, and with it in the fold, News Corp. is able to market directly to them. Every leading media company tells us mobile is going to be our future, says Ryan Wuerch, CEO of Motricity, a company that aggregates and distributes mobile content.

Read the whole story at Fortune »