• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, November 11, 2008

The Associated Press and Virgin Mobile USA have teamed up to offer two new youth-oriented mobile sites focused on celebrity and unusual news, the companies said Tuesday.

The AP Entertainment channel featured on the Virgin deck offers coverage of the music, film and TV industries along with celebrity news and gossip, while the "Can You Believe It?" site focuses on bizarre stories from around the world. The partnership includes an ad revenue-sharing agreement.

The pair of new sites will also serve as gateways to AP's Mobile News Network, which drew more than 26 million page views in September.

"Our customers have a propensity for fun, entertainment and being clued in to what's happening around them," said Yomi Uaboi, product manager, data access for Virgin Mobile USA, in a statement. "By adding the AP sites, we are offering the widest coverage of breaking entertainment news from the most trusted source."

The deal with Virgin Mobile is also the latest effort by the AP to expand its digital distribution. In mobile news, entertainment and quirky news have proven to be among the popular content categories AP offers. Earlier this year, the news organization expanded entertainment coverage, hiring an additional 21 new employees spread across Los Angeles, New York and London.

Both AP and Virgin Mobile want to tap into growing use of the mobile Web among young subscribers. "Consumers are becoming increasingly engaged in the mobile medium--generating a demand for news that is reliable and travels with them," said Mark Donovan, a senior analyst at comScore M:Metrics.

Mobile browsing grew 46% from August 2007 to August 2008, with adults ages 18 to 34 accounting for 53% of all active browsers, according to the mobile research service.

Virgin Mobile on Monday also posted better-than-expected earnings, increasing profits to $4.1 million compared to a net loss of $7.4 million a year ago. As of Sept. 30, Virgin had a subscriber base of 5.2 million, a 6% increase from the year-earlier period. The growth is party attributed to the $38 million acquisition of financially troubled mobile service Helio.

In a conference call with analysts, Virgin Mobile CEO Dan Schulman said the carrier's pre-paid and flat-rate plans were especially attractive in tough economic times. "We just did a survey of our base of customers and about three-quarters of them said that they were feeling the impact of the economy," said Schulman during the call. "And on the flip side, it made them much more appreciative of Virgin Mobile's value proposition."

Virgin in July began offering an unlimited calling plan for $80 a month with no annual contract. Unlimited plans from most of the other major U.S. wireless carriers start at $99 and require contracts.