Newspapers and video games may seem like oil and water – but the search for adjacent revenue streams, and the growing band of “casual” gamers, seems to be bringing games to publishers’ attention.
That’s at least true for Associated Newspapers and Mirror Group Newspapers, which are each embarking on game-related forays…
Associated’s Metro – which, as we reported last week, has launched its own Metro Apps mobile apps brand – is now marketing one of them, puzzle adventure Super Yum Yum, with an in-paper QR campaign…
What does a slurping cameleon have to do with news? Sweet F.A., really. But Metro’s digital director Jamie Walters reckons: “Metro’s tech-savvy Urbanite audience love their smartphones and it’s important we offer digital products and services that meet their needs.
“This is the first of a raft of Urbanite-focused apps we have planned for release.” Paid apps, whether related to news and information or not, could start to bring in real revenue if news publishers can identify the sweetest adjacency point (in Metro’s case, “urbanites”).
Meanwhile, The Mirror is debuting a new gaming section in its weekend entertainment guide. “The Ticket, powered by GamesMaster”, is a supplement produced with Future’s games magazine, which Future says it wants to “reinvigorate and widen the reach of beyond the company’s own portfolio”.
Future says it’s “a new way to communicate with a vast audience of casual gamers and families amongst the Daily Mirror’s 3.17 million readers” – many of whom will be Wii owners and, this Christmas, Kinect or Move owners.