Web Publishing Roll-up: Digital Media is Hiring, Mobile Web Gets New Tools

By Marisa Peacock | Published Mar 10, 2010

This week, web publishing focuses on the ways digital media is making headlines. From the mobile web to new careers, digital media is at the forefront of the media business model.

One Platform for Many Phones

Turning your mobile website into a brand consistent, fully functional eCommerce destination is now possible. Siteminis announced its patented Mobile Web Solution, a mobile platform that allows companies to deploy one site instead of multiple sites for each type of phone.

Working to simplify companies’ mobile web strategies by allowing IT administrators and web designers build and manage multiple site configurations into one site across several platforms, while recognizing every smartphone platform, as well as all web-enabled cell phones, SiteMinis makes it possible for browser-based designs to stay consistent.

Being able to access one mobile-optimized site, one URL and one mobile redirect that automatically detects the user’s browser and cell phone type, while delivering an optimized mobile commerce site with a consistent design and functionality, will prove to be valuable to the mobile web industry.

More Opportunity, Less Risk

It’s easy to get excited about the potential of mobile and digital media, and according to Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes, the rise of digital media offers more opportunity than risk where major media companies are concerned.

Bewkes attributes much of the increase in consumer usage of Time Warner's television programming, films and even magazines to the Internet, saying that unlike music and newspapers, television and film have been able to weather the recent economic downturn much better.

As well, Bewkes says that thanks to business models that allow consumers to digest content legally, Time Warner didn’t have to sacrifice profitability. Yet, for all media companies, including Time Warner, everyone agrees that digital media initiatives hold the potential for emerging sustainable economic models.

Digital Media is Hiring

Speaking of sustaining economic models and digital media, the New York Times is hiring at least a dozen full-time software engineers and web designers, plus one social media marketing manager and a creative technologist.

Having recently announced plans to implement a metered model for online content, under which frequent users of the site would be charged once having surpassed a certain number of free articles per month, the NYT may be looking for a few good developers to make the new model more enticing, as well as manage the site’s expanding archive of online video and interactive features.

But NYT isn’t the only one hiring.

The Associated Press just hired Nick Ascheim to run a newly created business unit called AP Gateway. Having previously worked as vice president for NYTimes.com, Ascheim has experience managing one of the web's most popular news sites.

AP Gateway, announced February 26, aims to develop products that will help the not-for-profit cooperatives, newspapers and broadcasters mine new sales opportunities to supplement the decreases in revenue generated by traditional sources of income, like online advertising.