Mobility

When thinking about the mobility that we have as printed newspaper consumers to take the product wherever we like, almost, it occurs to me that newspapers do a poor job of including their printed selves in conversation about mobile media.

Today's New York Times carries a full page ad for the CNN app on iTunes.

When I read the movie review-like quotes in the ad, I wonder to myself why we never see similar ads from individual newspapers extolling their virtues and offerings?

Just read from the NYT CNN ad:

"Takes mobile news to the next level!....A kind of fully loaded Swiss Army knife for news."

"Definitely worth your money..."

"Makes other news apps look lazy"

"The CNN Phone App .... is nothing short of impressive."

"Informative and empowering. Slick....innovative"

If newspapers a) don't have enough good initiatives to promote in words like these or b) cannot find the words, the newspaper ship is taking on a lot more water than we all think.

The New York Times today carries a print ad for Times Reader 2.0. It, too, leaves a lot to be desired.

Although they try to make it sound really cool, they are thinking like newspaper printers - print the newspaper and the subscriber can do the rest.

While there is a special offer website included, there is nothing else that helps the reader explore the offering.

It seems like an ad for Adobe Air more than The New York Times.

They ought ask someone to write the copy who is a candidate for the service, but who does not work at the Times or, God forbid, at a computer services provider.

Neither the Herald-Sun ad nor the NYT 2.0 ad appear in any easy-to-find, at least, place on the web, which - all by itself - adds a lot of water to the newspaper ship.