Wireless Opportunities

1. Wireless Opportunities Newspapers 2000 CONNECTIONS Track Moscone Center Sunday, June 18, 2000

2. Agenda For this Panel • You’ll leave knowing why Newspapers should care about “being mobile” • You’ll see how the platform might work, and how we might pay for it • You’ll hear what users want from wireless info, how advts. plan to use the medium, and how it could change how they buy. • You’ll have every reason to get involved in what the industry is doing.

3. Why Should We Care • Today, 70 million cellular subscribers, 40 million paging subscribers • Japan: Carrier signed up 4.2 million wireless data subscribers in one year (25K/day) • By 2002, there will be more wireless users than wired users (IDC); and an estimated 108 million Web-enabled phones in U.S. (AT&T) • By 2003, 30% of households will have at least two connected devices (Forrester).

4. "It is easy to envision a time in the next few years when the majority of Internet access could be through wireless and not wired means.” -- International Data Corp.

5. Why Should We Care • Beyond phones: 10 million personal digital devices shipped in 1999 • Palm: 7 million+ units in circulation, plans to incorporate wireless capabilities (*70K developers authoring for the Palm OS) • On the horizon: specialized, information-specific wireless devices, including some targeted just at local city guide info

6. Devices

7. Success Factors • High penetration of Internet-ready phones -- eventually they’ll all be • Faster transmission speeds • Lower subscription fees (choice of “free” Web browsing) • Easier-to-use wireless phones • More content that takes advantage of the platform

8. New Media Federation • Understand the landscape • Meetings with wireless players • Communicate findings to NAA membership

9. Opportunity • Carriers are listening. You have something they want. • Users want local information. • High potential to extend the loyalty of your audiencre to a medium that is tactical, relevant,local and immediate.

10. Converse With the Carriers • They control the phone (billing relationship) • The interface (convenience) • The localization mechanism • The marketing/affiliation deals

11. The Threat • Competition: Yahoo!, AOL’s Digital City, Ticketmaster-City Search all there. • Forrester (June 2000) says 93% of major content providers will support Internet cell phones and 96% PDAs by 2002. Average spending on these platforms will quadruple to $1.5 million on average. • The most cited reason given (82%) as to WHY content producers are doing this is the medium’s ability to engender LOYALTY.

12. The Threat • High potential for “slotting inflation” • Diminished habitual PC usage • Enablers could become the next portals • Yellow Pages and carriers themselves may siphon off directory-enabled commerce and extend their promotional clout locally

13. Influencing Purchases “The growth in wireless use and the convenience and sophistication of wireless devices means wireless call and response will replace Yellow Pages lookups as lead generators for local stores.” -- The Kelsey Group

14. Wireless Device

15. Selection Process

16. Results

17. No Consensus on Business Model • AT&T Wireless: Standardize offerings, pay bounties and split revenues. • SprintPCS: Sell “home screen” to big players, but not paid services to users • Both want a piece of e-commerce • We want it all -- subscriptions, advertising, bounties...

18. What Can We Do That the User Might Want? • Alerts -- classifieds, auctions, stocks, news • Offers -- tickets, sales (click to buy) • Directions -- driving or walking • Scheduling -- own and service providers • Organizing -- contacts (including IM), useful information • Horoscopes and Soap Opera Digest

19. Reasons for Using Internet

20. 35K sign-ups in one day • 70K subscribers in one month

21. AccessAtlanta drew 3,500 subscribers to its wireless editions in one week. Access Atlanta JuneauAlaska Juneaualaska.com’s PalmPilot edition

22. What NAA is Doing • Data conversion techniques • Working with Nando Media to develop “wireless application server” prototype • Offering training materials, seminar at N2K • Building index of wireless editions (including audiotex systems) • Discussing collaboration issues • Initiating discussions /road show contacts

23. What Can You Do? • Use it • Put useful info into a database • “Mobilize it, personalize it, localize it” • Make services useful/mandatory, and interactive • Experiment with email and “creeping permission” services • Keep it simple, but targeted • Draw from past experience, but don’t expect everything to convey

24. What Are Our Panelists Doing? • Ed Canale, Director of Strategic Development and New Media, The Sacramento Bee • Peter Howley, Business Development Director, Washington Post Newsweek Interactive • Tom Bair, Director of Convergence Technologies, SF Interactive Inc. • Gary A. Lillian, Senior Vice President/Marketing & Communications, Jiffy Lube • Mike Mills, Business Development VP, Aether Systems Inc.

25. Sacbee has a deal with Verizon under which it receives an ongoing bounty for subscribers who want news on their wireless devices.