As consumer reading preferences increasingly shift to mobile devices such as the iPad and smartphones, The Associated Press is looking for a means to harness the mobile medium's potentials by bringing circulars and coupon inserts to newspaper apps, AdAge.com reported today.
Tentatively called "iCircular," the app is currently being developed in collaboration with Verve Wireless and will work in conjunction with the AP's white-label app platform. Jane Seagrave, senior vice president and chief revenue officer at the AP confirmed its development, but declined to provide any further information saying, "the development process wasn't far enough along," according to AdAge. Member publishers can also publish apps under their own brand with the help of this application.
"Ad circulars ... are extremely important to almost every newspaper," James Moroney, CEO and publisher at the Dallas Morning News was quoted as saying by AdAge. "With the decline of classified print advertising, as far as printed newspaper ad-revenue categories go, it is, if not the largest for a lot of papers, always going to be one of the two or three largest categories."
