Game Changer

My new phone came today. Okay: lame. But that´s not the point. A couple of years ago, I had a drink with my professor. He is…well, old fashioned. He is a paper guy. It is only news if you can print it and wrap your sandwiches in the next day. Period. Even back in the day …EeePcee´s were the next big thing… I could not agree. When I woke up in the morning, first thing I switched on my computer then go to the bathroom. During my first cups of coffee I browsed my favorite news-sites then went off to university or work. That was – and is – my breakfast routine.

Around this time we sat with the editor-in-chief of Spiegel Online, Rüdiger Ditz. (SpOn is like the CNN of German online news.) He said, the publishers in Germany (!) were planning something big, something that would be a revolution in online journalism. I am still waiting. But there was a lot of progress in the field of hardware during the last three years. Most important: tablet-computers and smart phones.

Back at the “paper” I work for, we founded only a few weeks ago a new department: mobile media. Okay, we try to sell apples Ipad in a special LVZ-version to the less smart of our readers, so we are in need of some custom content. But still: tablet-computers and smart phones are a game changer.

You couldn´t read the paper on your laptop in the subway, or on the breakfast-table, while waiting at the dentist. It was just inconvenient. But not with smart phones and tablet computers. It is as easy to handle as a newspaper, with the multi-media applications of any given online news product. Furthermore: everyone has a smart phone or a tablet. Even the … how to put it delicately… less fortunate in terms of education. Reach! Fucking reach! A whole new market. Ad sales will go through the roof!

Plus. Yeah, there still is another plus. Mobile hardware provides a whole lot of new advertising models. GPS and stuff. Whilst you´re reading a text about fatal heart-diseases due to red meat and carbonated drinks, there could be ads for sushi-restaurants and organic food stores popping up. Shit like that.

I hope it´s a big time money maker. Need a Porsche.