Newsy.com? There’s an app for that
Columbia-based Media Convergence Group’s video news iPhone application for Newsy.com is currently ranked as the sixth most downloaded free news app in Apple’s iTunes App Store.
Downloads of the app shot up last wee after Apple featured the Newsy in its “News and Noteworthy” section of the App Store on Tuesday. The application has been downloaded over 10,000 downloads since then, Media Convergence Group President Jim Spencer said.
Its ranking means the Newsy application is currently more popular than releases from well-known news outlets such as The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, HuffingtonPost.com and Time Inc. The Newsy app has been available through iTunes since September 20.
Reaching mobile news consumers on devices like the iPhone and iPod Touch is key to the company’s distribution strategy, Spencer said. Multi-platform content distribution means “making content available anywhere, anytime or anyway our viewers want it,” he said, noting that he sees inherent opportunity in mobile video news.
“In a short time we’re among some of the biggest and best-known brands in the world,” he said. “It’s an area we feel we can target and win.”
The application is updated simultaneously with the Web site, and users can thumb through recent videos, search for older clips, leave comments and share videos via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter.
Two MU students–convergence journalism major Tony Brown and computer science doctoral student Peng Zhuang–designed the application. Spencer said they were selected after their team won an MU-sponsored iPhone app competition earlier this year.
Newsy apps for Blackberry and Android operating system devices are currently in development, and an updated version of the app could be released by early next year, Spencer said. Spencer is considering whether to charge users to download future applications.
Newsy.com displays video new clips that are multi-perspective, meaning its content integrates multiple news sources in order to contrast the ways news events are covered. In one recent clip about President Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize, an anchor presented views from ABC News, CNN, Russia today, MarketWatch, TimesOnline (UK), USA Today and Reuters.
Media Convergence Group has seven full-time and 13 part-time employees working in its Elm Street newsroom, and partners with MU to allow students to produce and market content for newsy.com.