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Jul. 22--Want 2 get txts from the T-D 2 ur cell?
Now u can.
Folks wanting daily news and weather updates from around central Virginia can get them on wireless phones and hand-held mobile devices from the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The newspaper this week introduced a free text-messaging service for the portable gadgets. Those who sign up online can choose the daily alerts they want to receive: morning and breaking news headlines, local events, weather notices and Virginia sports updates. Most messages will be sent in the morning.
In addition, a stripped-down version of the newspaper's Web site will be available beginning Monday on smart phones such as BlackBerrys, Palm Treos and Motorola Qs.
Why text messaging? Because people are busy, said Thomas A. Silvestri, president and publisher of the Times-Dispatch.
"How do you get busy people's attention? Throwing a paper on their doorstep is one way, but over the course of the day after they read that paper you're out of sight, out of mind," Silvestri said during an interview yesterday. "This is all about an attempt to keep us in sight, in mind."
For phones, the Times-Dispatch text technology has a limit on how many characters can be sent. Messages must be 133 characters or less, including spaces between letters.
Most mobile phones are restricted to receiving messages of 160 characters or less.
"You still struggle with what you can get on a little screen," Silvestri said, "but if it's a burst [of information to the phone], it plants an idea that there's a story out there to be told, an event to go to, or to watch out for a certain change in weather."
Text messaging is the latest push for more online audio, video and digital services from the 156-year-old Times-Dispatch, as many consumers shift their newspaper-reading routines from the breakfast table to the Web.
The Times-Dispatch follows a handful of newspapers already providing the text-messaging service, such as USA Today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The New York Times, which charges for the service.
The growing popularity of text messaging was behind broadening the newspaper's reach onto mobile phones, said Scott Bateman, general manager for TimesDispatch.com.
In the second half of last year, 48.7 billion text messages were sent in the U.S., up nearly 100 percent from the same period in 2004, according to industry group CTIA-The Wireless Association. The organization counts roughly 216.7 million Americans with mobile phones, while the Pew Internet & American Life Project says a third of wireless-phone owners use the text feature.
More than 100 people had signed up as of noon yesterday for the Times-Dispatch service. Subscribers can input their ZIP code and can have additional alerts crafted to their location.
"Let's say Hanover County schools closed today but nobody else is," Bateman said. "We actually send out an alert to everyone in Hanover County to say schools are closed today."
Smart phones equipped with Internet service already can log on to the newspaper's Web site, but next week can start viewing a faster-loading, no-graphics, no-advertisement form of the site.
There are no ads on the text messages, either, which will be sent during weekdays only, Bateman said. The messages will count toward text sending and receiving limits the subscriber has with wireless carriers such as Verizon, Cingular or Sprint Nextel.
Bateman said instances of receiving spam messages -- junk mail -- through the Times-Dispatch text service are possible though rare.
As for the future? The New York Times' text service offers its subscribers photos from the paper. Will the Times-Dispatch do so?
"Everything's possible," Bateman said. "This is a learning experience for everyone."
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To see more of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesdispatch.com.
Copyright (c) 2006, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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