Hearst goes mobile - MoCoNews

Hearst Magazines Revamps Mobile Sites For Lifestyle Titles, Embraces Ad-Funded Approach

• Posted by Peggy Anne Salz
• Wed 07 Feb 2007 12:16 PM

Ad Age reports on Hearst Magazines' renewed push into mobile, launching fr*ee, ad-supported mobile sites for its Seventeen, Cosmopolitan and Cosmo Girl magazines. The sites will replace earlier (and much simpler) paid-subscription destinations. They will showcase content, including advice, downloads, blogs and teases to the print edition of the magazine, as well as interactive features like horoscopes, quizzes, beauty tips and ringtones. Cosmo Mobile, for example, will offer Lust Lessons and a Bedroom Blog. Hearst hopes to have mobile sites for all its brands -- including Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Esquire, Popular Mechanics and House Beautiful - by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Hearst and Verizon Wireless have joined to make Seventeen Mobile available to Verizon users via Mobile Web 2.0-capable handsets. (Mobile Web 2.0 is a service package available to Verizon users for US$5.00 per month, plus airtime, if purchased as a standalone service.) The Seventeen Mobile service gives users access information on health, fashion and beauty reports, horoscopes, daily tips and daily traumas -- a popular section in the Seventeen print magazine. The mobile site also suggests movies to see, books to read and things to do. Seventeen joins Hearst’s CosmoGIRL! as the leading teen information sites on Verizon Wireless’ Mobile Web 2.0 service, the company said in a statement. Press release