LSN: Local Mobile Platform/Ad Network

Yesterday, Local Solutions Network launched mobile widgets on the Yahoo! Go platform. Today I had a chance to speak with Lee Durham, CEO of LSN about it and a range of other mobile topics.

The company has been around since 2001 and forged early deals with carriers in the US to deliver local news and other local content to the carrier deck (and beyond). The content comes via local TV affiliates and, increasingly, newspapers. 

Gumiyo Makes Pitch to Newspapers

Mobile classifieds platform Gumiyo is pitching the newspaper industry that a suite of new tools and services represent an important new revenue stream for the beleaguered industry. (Here's our previous post on Gumiyo.)

From the press release earlier today:

Verve Joins Forces with Zvents

Verve Wireless, which is behind the AP Mobile News Network and hosts mobile sites for many newspaper publishers, has announced a deal with Zvents, which also works with lots of newspapers. This will enable Verve to offer and integrate Zvents content into the mobile sites it builds and hosts for its customers.

Mobiya Broadens Its Model to Become General SMS Ad Play

UK-based Mobile classifieds platform and provider Mobiya is shifting its model to become an SMS ad network. Classifieds still form the content basis for the network. But ads will be sold around that "inventory."

I sent an email to founder Sacha Vekeman about the change. He told me they have "Decided to move away from a premium rate SMS model and move the business model of our company to sell the outgoing SMS inventory to brand and response advertisers."

Vekeman added:

Reports and Predictions: Handset Growth Steady, Mobile Ads Uncertain

There's an interesting paradox in mobile. On the one hand we have firms such as Portio Research forecasting continued "robust" handset growth amid the global economic downturn. According to Cellular-News:

A new report from Portio Research reveals that over half the world now uses a mobile phone and predicts that 80% of the world’s population will be doing so by the end of 2013 - a staggering 5.8 billion people.

But then there's this bit about declining ARPU:

Swedish Newspaper Links Local Sales to Cell Phones

Agence France Press reports that Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, is selling Nokia phones with direct links to its mobile content. DN subscribers can purchase the Nokia 6120 3-G phone on the paper's Web site. Then, after signing up for a 199-kronor ($31-dollar) monthly plan, they will be able to surf the daily's mobile Web site by simply pressing a special "DN" button on the faceplate.