AP Mobile launches international sites for The Canadian Press

NEW YORK – The Associated Press and The Canadian Press announced today the launch of The Canadian Press Mobile, developed by AP on its award-winning platform that allows smartphone users to easily view, search, save and share multimedia news any time, anywhere. AP teamed up with Canada’s national news agency to introduce two international mobile sites accessible from the Web browser on most Internet-enabled wireless devices, http://news4mobile.ca in English and http://nouvellesmobile.ca in French.

“It’s important for Canada to have its news leaders band together in providing a single access point for comprehensive mobile news,” said Eric Morrison, president of The Canadian Press. “With AP having already paved the way, we have been able to leverage their knowledge and technical capabilities to offer Canadians the fastest, widest coverage of national, local and world news stories, pictures and soon video from many respected providers. That’s a big benefit for users for the convenience alone, and it’s great for our partners to take advantage of the highly targeted, location-based revenue opportunities.”

In addition to The Canadian Press and AP, content will come from 20 communities and a growing list of sources including the Globe and Mail, Canada’s No.1 national newspaper; the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper; Transcontinental Media, Eastern Canada’s leading community newspaper publisher; and CTV, Canada’s No.1 television network.

The Canadian Press news application on AP Mobile will also serve as a gateway to AP’s award-winning mobile platform, www.apnews.com.

“It’s an exciting time for us to expand internationally,” said Jeffrey Litvack, general manager of mobile and emerging products at AP. “Working with The Canadian Press, we hope to extend our early success with AP Mobile by creating a global footprint for news from the most trusted sources. In the coming weeks, look for the release of Canadian Press client apps optimized for the most popular smartphones in the marketplace.”

CTIA Wireless 2009 (April 1-3) conference attendees are invited to demo The Canadian Press Mobile and other AP mobile applications at AP Booth No. 1400-H in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

AP Mobile was launched in May 2008 as the first product released by AP’s Digital Cooperative, an initiative aimed at finding new digital outlets for news and information produced by AP members. Today, AP Mobile covers the entire 100 top designated market areas boasting a growing number of content contributors to create a seamless, rich mobile news media experience. More than 1,000 news organizations have signed up to provide local news stories through the AP mobile platform. AP Mobile also offers device-optimized applications for BlackBerry and iPhone, with more client applications on the way.