IFRA

IFRA: The Telegraph Media Group was the first content provider in the U.K. for the G1 phone from Telekom, with Android as OS. How has this service been received in the marketplace? 

Aashish Chandarana: We launched the application having worked very closely with Google, one of The Telegraph’s key partners. We made sure the application was absolutely ready on the day it launched in the United States and a week later in the U.K. We are still one of the top news apps within the Android marketplace. It is a steadily growing user base. We are now in the version three of the application. We are constantly enhancing and uploading new features to the system. We are certainly one of the most sucessful and downloaded news applications.

IFRA: And how have the advertisers responded?

Chandarana: We currently don’t serve adverts into our application. We do have, however, a sponsor for the application, which is Cisco. They very much wanted to take advantage of our ability to be first to the market with this product. For the moment, I cannot disclose how much that (sponsorship) is worth and for how long it runs.

IFRA: You also recently presented an application for the iPhone?

Chandarana: Yes, it is out there at the moment, but we are aware of a few minor bugs that we are currently working on… But yes, we have created such an application and it is already available for iPhone. In terms of looks and functionality, it is identical to the Android application. The only difference is how the application behaves on that particular device, or particular quirks that might be rendered differently on an Android device, for example.

IFRA: Is it difficult and energy consuming to convert an application that has been specifically created for a particular handset and operating system into another one?

Chandarana: Yes, very much so. Each one of these devices has its own caractheristics and its own code base, so it is not just a matter of cutting and pasting, from one to the other... There is a certain amount of reworking that has to happen with the toolsets that are available for all of these devices. We are confident that we are making good progress in these areas. We’re leveraging our efforts through the partnerships we have at Telegraph and much of that will help to make sure we end up getting good experience and good products.

IFRA: Why did you decide in favour of creating an application for Android, when the iPhone hit the market first?

Chandarana: Mainly because of our relationship with Google. We were able to take advantage of the resources that we had available at the time internally and the support and help from Google to get this product built. Once we had that out and stable, it was possible to create the iPhone version. There was no real reason why we did one before the other; it was just that the circumstances meant that Android came first.

IFRA: Did you create the applications for the Google phone and iPhone in-house?

Aashish Chandarana: We have a long-standing partnership with an external company who have assisted us in the building of these applications. They have worked with The Telegraph on a number of other projects, not only on the mobile side, and provided support to our existing development projects.

IFRA: Is the website of The Telegraph optimised also to be shown properly in mobile browsers such as Opera, Safari, Firefox and others?

Chandarana: Yes, we make sure in terms of accessibility that we support as many browsers as possible. Obviously, though, there are some small browsers where our site might be behaving in a different way, but we fully support all the major ones. In terms of mobile phones, again, we do some levels of device protection to make sure the user has the best possible experience and things end up in the right way.

IFRA: Is this something you do internally at The Telegraph, or do you just send the content and allow the browser to repackage it to be shown in a nice way?

Chandarana: No, what we have is our Content Management System which runs the website and that also handles our mobile site. So, it is a specific version of the website that is available for mobile devices. However, that is a fully automated process, there is no human intervention in creating this specific mobile version. However, we are looking to see whether that model is sustainable in the long term.

IFRA: What are the advantages and disadvantages for users when looking at a News (native) application on their phones versus that of an optimised site?

Chandarana: I think the key thing from the application point of view that we are currently experiencing, which is a higher level of engagement with our content, is when someone has downloaded the application rather than just going to the mobile phone. I think both lead you ultimately to the same piece of content, and I think our structure is very much about making sure the end user has a full variety of options to choose from for consuming the content the way they want to consume it. I do not think there are any particular advantages or disadvantages of doing it either way. What the application does do a little bit better than the straight optimised mobile site is, for instance, it allows you to present videos (better); it allows to exploit new features and functionalities better. And as the devices get more and more clever, the applications will allow us to access all the power of the handset… So whether we will be able to have, for example, the GPS system of the handset or to be able to look at location-based services, which is something you would not be able to do on an optimised site, that is the kind of thing we are looking at that we would like to do.

IFRA: And for the publisher? Is one option better or more suited to publisher preferences regarding advertising purposes?

Chandarana: I think both are really good opportunities for advertisers and for content delivery. I think that they both operate in slightly different ways and you can still sell adverts into an application or a website, and you can also use sponsorships in both as well. I think the applications going forward may have slightly different and less traditional commercial opportunities, in the sense that, traditionally, mobile advertising is very much display-driven at the moment and maybe applications will be an opportunity to transact further down the line, whereas optimised websites for mobile might not be able to do so.

IFRA: Some publishers have raised concerns about some browsers repackaging content to fit the device in a way that is not visually appealing, and it also prevents the paper from knowing exactly which IP address the visitor has. You said your CMS converts the website automatically to be displayed in mobile browsers...

Chandarana: Yes. Our mobile web information is identical to that of our website. Our current metrics systems work exactly the same way for both platforms. Ultimately, a mobile also has an IP adress, exactly like a desktop computer has one, so there is no difference in the way the web operates. This is because we are offering the ‘right’ type of content to be displayed in the handset. Thus, we are in control of how we are presenting the content, we are making sure the delivery is good and consistent, rather than having software on the client side trying to do that.

IFRA: How important do you think the mobile market is for news publishers? What advice would you give to some other publishers that may want to embrace this area?

Aashish Chandarana: I think this is a very important market to be in and I think the approach should be consistent across all existing devices. We are not going to see one player winner. I think if you looked at the market 12 or 15 months ago, it looked quite clearly that one operating system would win, but then Apple came along wit

h the iPhone and Google has made a serious play in the market, as well... So we have four or five key players that have an operating system and are quite consistent, and I think they are going to be around for quite some time. Therefore, I think the key is to make sure you support as many devices as possible.

In terms of the commercial markets and commercial opportunities, I think we are still relatively young at the market and that these opportunities will open more this year and next year as this all progresses. But let’s be serious: Smart phones are a growing user base. Gone are the days where people go in and just look to buy the basic handset . The network providers around the world are being more and more reticent to push the devices and what they are capable of, and I think they (devices) are here to stay… I think that as publishers we have to recognise the importance of that and if you want to get the content out to the public and to the consumers, then you have to be in this market now.

Interview conducted by Mari Pascual