Profile: Verve Wireless

Encinitas start-up gets $3M to take newspapers to cell phones

By Staff and wire reports | Monday, July 28, 2008 3:12 PM PDT

People are increasingly using their phones to surf the Web. Of the 95 million mobile Internet subscribers in the United States, 40 million actively use their phones to go online ---- twice the number as two years ago ---- according to Nielsen Mobile.

"Mobile is actually a better way to reach people than print or even Web. It's versatile, immediate, travels and is just as compelling," said Art Howe, Verve's chief executive. Howe won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 as a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The problem, said Verve's president, Tom Kenney, is that local papers do not have the resources, expertise or relationships with cell phone carriers to build mobile sites themselves. Verve does it for them, in exchange for a cut of ad revenue. People are increasingly using their phones to surf the Web. Of the 95 million mobile Internet subscribers in the United States, 40 million actively use their phones to go online ---- twice the number as two years ago ---- according to Nielsen Mobile.

"Mobile is actually a better way to reach people than print or even Web. It's versatile, immediate, travels and is just as compelling," said Art Howe, Verve's chief executive. Howe won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 as a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The problem, said Verve's president, Tom Kenney, is that local papers do not have the resources, expertise or relationships with cell phone carriers to build mobile sites themselves. Verve does it for them, in exchange for a cut of ad revenue.

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