A description of the panel: ” Learn how to design mobile experiences for maximum impact and how to leverage new or existing tools and technologies efficiently as you enter the mobile space. Panelists will offer advice and examples of how to create mobile products with impact and what newsroom changes are needed to create successful mobile content.”

“Mobile share” is a figure I use to explain how much of our content is accessed by people using a mobile device (smartphone or tablet). The number compares total mobile page views to total digital page views (mobile + desktop website).

Notes about the Register’s mobile share:

• OCRegister mobile share crossed the 15% mark for the first time with 15.92% in June 2011.
• The Register crossed the 10% mark in October 2010 and the 5% mark in May 2010.

“Sonya Quick has done a fantastic job helping us move forward with social and mobile strategies and exploring new opportunities to engage with readers via ShareOC. Our mobile audience is growing at such a phenomenal rate – and has such great potential – that Sonya will focus her talents on our mobile site and mobile apps, while continuing to share her insights on social networks and user-generated content. The ShareOC work will migrate to the crowd sourcing team leader once that role is filled.”

The OCRegister newsroom is about to get a whole lot more mobile.

Since the Freedom Communications mobile strategy was approved in February 2010 the company has, among other things, launched countless apps, built its own mobile websites, started adapting the content we produce so it is accessible and optimized for more devices, launched a whole series of niche news alerts, deployed a news alert system making it simple and fast to send news alerts, launched an iPad app in September (with the new version of the app launching this week) and starting to guide advertisers in how to reach these mobile audiences.

And now the newsroom is going full mobile.

About half of the newsroom employees have bought their own smartphones. But now, the other half who still use company phones will ditch their Razors for myTouch 3Gs and G2s. (Read about how we chose those specific phones.)

Apps for journos – Share and find suggested mobile and tablet apps for journalists. Submit | View Database

Google Reader bundle – A selection of suggested mobile journalism blogs and websites.

Mojos list on Twitter - A list of suggested mobile journalists to follow on Twitter.

Mobile is becoming more a part of what the collective newsroom does every day.

When the OCRegister mobile app launched in April 2010, there was very little people could do but use the app and offer feedback. Today, an alerts system built into our online CMS allows more people to meet the needs of our growing mobile audience.

So far, the OCRegister offers 24 streams of news alerts on a variety of topics including breaking news, fast food, the Anaheim Ducks, wildfires and Huntington Beach.

After working a weekend reporting shift on Saturday covering a nasty 10-car wreck I was checking up on our mobile stats Monday afternoon. I noticed that our mobile website had its best day on Sunday, about 5,000 page views more than the previous best (the previous best was a very rainy day in November).

So, I thought I’d compare our mobile traffic (web and apps) to that seen on the desktop website and I found out that we hit 24% mobile share Sunday and 25% Saturday. One tweet about that led to an article on Poynter talking about our best mobile day and why.

I compile the information for monthly mobile reports sent to newsroom staff, as well as marketing and advertising employees. The mobile share shows the shift of some segment of our audiences (or attraction of new audiences) to mobile products.

2010 mobile share of all digital traffic:

2.74%    January
3.67%    February
4.08%    March
3.45%    April
4.50%    May
7.64%    June
8.27%    July
9.22%    August
7.59%    September
9.55%    October
10.49%    November

Our mobile group with a few new people added got to work on figuring out our approach for tablets.

Months later, the strategy and funding were approved by management.

Now the fine design details, specific content plans and workflow changes are now being decided based on the strategy our small tablet team (the small working group included myself and three others).

The key to our tablet strategy is that tablets are a true hybrid medium. At the present moment, tablets represent a perfect blend between online and offline, tactile and digital, involved and lean-back, mobile and desktop. Stay tuned on the latest tablet products to emerge based on this strategy.