Quattro Wireless, the Waltham, MA, mobile-marketing company we profiled last September after it completed a $12.3 million Series B funding round, revealed today that Cox Newspapers is using its automated platform to produce mobile-friendly versions of 19 regional Cox papers, including the Austin Statesman, the Palm Beach Post, the Dayton Daily News, and the Waco Tribune.
Quattro’s proprietary mobile transcoding platform works with a publication’s standard Web content. When readers request pages using a mobile device such as an Apple iPhone, a Treo or Blackberry smart phone, or a small-screened mass-market cell phone, the software adapts the content on the fly to fit each device’s capabilities. On an iPhone, which has a full Web browser, a newspaper site might look largely the same as it does on a laptop or desktop computer. But on a Treo or a standard mobile phone, the paper’s front page might be boiled down to a few headlines, images, and text ads.
Quattro already produces the mobile versions of websites such as Boston.com, CBSNews.com, NFL.com, and TheStreet.com. Alongside the streamlined content, Quattro’s platform can serve ads purchased through its in-house mobile advertising network, which caters to businesses that want to reach mobile audiences.
“News is a natural fit for the mobile audience and mobile’s ad-supported platform provides a great opportunity for the evolving news business,” Lars Albright, Quattro’s vice president of business development, said in a statement. “Advertiser response to the Quattro news channel has been very positive with particular interest in the local targeting opportunities sites like the Cox family of newspapers offer.”
Cox said it decided to work with Quattro because the company’s software allowed efficient, hands-off production of the mobile newspaper sites, creating additional ad sales and revenue opportunities.
Quattro’s venture backers include Highland Capital Partners of Lexington, MA, and Globespan Capital Partners, which has offices in Boston, Palo Alto, and Tokyo.
