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Digital Directions

WTWH Media’s Matheson navigates company’s mobile strategy

by: Sean Callahan

Marshall Matheson is senior VP-online media for WTWH Media, which publishes Design World. The title competes with such longtime leaders in the engineering sector as Design News and Machine Design. Matheson has led WTWH’s attack on the digital front as the Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based company has aggressively pursued mobile—including a new Design World mobile site that rolled out last month—and social media initiatives.

 Digital Directions: Tell us about your mobile approach?

Matheson: We first went down the path of looking at mobile applications. We’ve since backed up on that and looked specifically just at ensuring that our key sites are mobile-friendly and our e-newsletters are mobile-friendly. The reason being is that in order to reach these folks on all these devices—the software is changing so fast with the BlackBerry and the Droid—that we decided to take a more mobile website-focused approach, rather than an app-focused approach for the mobile devices.

 DD: How do you create a mobile site that is viewable easily on BlackBerry, Droid, iPhone and other devices?

Matheson: Our sites look great on the iPhone. On some of the other devices, BlackBerry in particular, the Web browser is not as good. We’re utilizing a third party, and what we’re essentially doing is taking a number of our RSS feeds in certain categories and running them through a third party and displaying the content. There’s also a mobilized version of the article that you can read, and currently we’re using the Google text-based converter for that technology. So if you opt to look at a mobile version, it’s basically using the Google rendering for that.

 DD: What are you working on for the iPhone and the iPad?

Matheson: It’s our philosophy of reaching users where they want to be reached on their terms. We want to see what kind of uptake there would be if we did have an (iPhone) app on the app store. It’s just another avenue to do that. So we may still go down that path, just for metrics and testing to see what the results are. Now, with the iPad app, we’re working with a third party as well. Our idea is to have a monthly version of the magazine (Design World) with specific advertisers and then have a dual front view with what’s current and take the daily stuff from DesignWorldOnline.com and put that in a daily view. So you’d have a monthly view and daily view. You can toggle to look at the content from the magazine, and that content will last for a month—the features, articles, editorial. And then being able to toggle to a “what’s happening now” in the same application.

 DD: Did you consider digital magazine technology instead of creating an iPad app? Matheson: We looked at it but, the page-turn technology, I don’t think that’s the right way to consume data online. When people engage in a magazine, they turn pages: there’s this psychological engagement. But [when you consider] online and in digital and that engagement—the whole page-turning thing—it misses the mark. Those technologies aren’t taking advantage of the new interface that is available with the touch, with being able to slide and how people want to scroll versus turning pages.

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