AppCheck: WRAL

WRAL App Wins With Simplicity, Interactivity

Users of WRAL-TV (Raleigh, N.C.) pioneering news app can check the news, weather and sports, as well as submit photos, video and email. They can even click to call the newsroom with tips. The station, which launched its first app with Sprint in 2004 and its first iPhone app in 2008, recently added a premium option for its popular 'Behind Bars' vertical. Key to the app's success, WRAL says, is a simple interface and lots of interactivity.
NetNewsCheck,

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Editor's note: AppCheck is a new feature that spotlights news, weather, sports and entertainment applications for mobile and tablet devices with a local hook or functionality, examining their features, audience and business model. Previous AppChecks can be found here.

Today it’s de rigueur for network affiliates to have a news app, but when WRAL brought its app out in 2008, it was uncharted territory. The Raleigh, N.C., Capitol Broadcasting-owned CBS affiliate found itself on the cutting edge thanks to a corporate sibling that had been experimenting in the space long before anyone predicted that everyone would need to be there.

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News Over Wireless, also owned by Capitol, had actually launched its very first app back before there were iPhones and Androids for them to live on, according to general manager Sam Matheny. A Java downloadable app with Sprint launched in December 2004, Matheny said, followed by the first on-deck mobile website that came out on Verizon the following month.

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On the pioneering front, the app was also first to offer users the ability to generate content through its Mobile ReportIt feature. Users can use it to submit photos, videos or email, as well as the ability to click and call through directly to the newsroom, Matheny said. The app was also an early leader in sending out push alerts to users.

WRAL's app makes use of a “smart URL system,” Matheny said, so if users send a story to another user, the system will analyze what kind of system the recipient views it on, routing automatically to either the station’s Web site (if on desktop) or the appropriate mobile-optimized version for the user’s device.

WRAL’s acting general manager John Conway said that the app’s revenue streams come in through display ads, which are often sold by section. “We have tremendous belief in the potential of mobile,” he said, noting that the station has long been impressed with the app’s functionality and resonance with users. “I think it does a very good job of providing the best of what WRAL has to offer.”

But WRAL’s news app wouldn’t fully fit the trailblazer bill if it didn’t spawn verticals, and on that front it has been busy, too. A GoAskMom app and weather-specific app are among the ranks, most recently joined by Behind Bars, a mug shots app of the Raleigh-Durham area’s arrested souls that was launched after a wildly popular initial appearance on WRAL’s website. Behind Bars is free, but it offers in-app purchase opportunities for complete access to the photo streams of the inebriated, bedraggled, newly incarcerated faces from neighboring counties.

 Behind Bars may be just a novelty for users, but being novel is something WRAL and News Over Wireless have learned a little something about.

Behind+Bars
Behind Bars
Vital Stats: 

 

Vendor: News Over Wireless

Cost to consumers: Free (although Behind Bars has in-app purchases available)

Compatible devices: iPhone, Android

White label version: Yes

Number of downloads: Over 100,000

Key characteristics: Clear, simple interface links to news stories, video content, weather, sports, deals and platform for user generated content. Verticals for content on moms, weather and felons.

 

Read other stories in this series by clicking here. To recommend other apps to profile, contact us at netnews@newscheckmedia.com.

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