Finding Its Voice Again: De-Commoditizing The News

[Commentary] As news from Haiti comes first to many of us via our mobile devices, it calls attention to the feature and interface arms race that currently is going on in mobile news. In the app space especially we have providers like CNN, Guardian, and Time magazine making relatively late entries, but with very interesting ideas. News providers know they are entering a cluttered market, so another me-too scroll of headlines just won't do. Mobile represents an opportunity for news to reverse the polarity of Web history and distinguish rather than commoditize brands. As with marketing, content on the mobile platform has the chance not only to "extend" itself into another medium but to confront its functionality in people's lives. I know it's becoming a tiresome mantra, but mobile gives publishers the chance to do something few of them embraced on the Web: repackage content as more of a service that people value and can distinguish from competition. There is money to be made here.