Bluestar Mobile has been hired to design, build and manage a mobile site for the newspaper. The agency will also create mobile marketing campaigns to drive traffic to the site while ads placed on the mobile site will be targeted to individual users.
The Independent held back on developing a specialist mobile site, preferring to wait until the medium became viable for publishers, said Bill Swanson, digital managing director at The Independent.
Rival newspaper The Times launched its mobile site almost two years ago, offering breaking news from The Times, The Sunday Times and Times Online, full business and sports coverage, entertainment news, real-time football scores, and a searchable jobs section.
The Financial Times relaunched its mobile offering earlier this year, adding new features for both paying and casual users, It also launched an iPhone app and it has begun using mobile analytics to provide its advertisers with reliable data.
The Telegraph initially launched its mobile site as a £5 a month subscription service, but dropped the pay barrier in August last year. The site is not ad-supported at this stage, although Telegraph Media Group has indicated this may change as the service matures. TMG has also developed apps for Android and the iPhone.
The Independent mobile offering will bring mobile-specific content when the new site launches.
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