Erie Times releases iPad, iPhone, Android apps and mobile web powered by Whiz Technologies

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Oct. 9, 2013 - PRLog -- San Jose, California:  Erie Times-News and www.GoErie.com, based in Erie, PA, owned by Times Publishing Company, announced that it has released new tablet apps for the iPad and Kindle Fire, new smartphone apps for iPhone and Android, and HTML5 mobile web to its readers. These mobile apps are available for download in the respective app stores and are ready for use.

“Whiz Technologies offered us the ability to cover every mobile and tablet device through native applications or HTML 5.0 mobile site”, said Rich Forsgren, Chief Technology Officer at the Times Publishing Company. “Whiz’s cloud-based technology of normalizing  various third party feeds via RSS from our Online CMS allows for precise control of our content not only from our newsroom to our audience, but from our third party content providers as well. All of this works seamlessly with our pay meter, presenting a unified approach across all platforms including integrating with our SSO strategy.”

Talking about overall engagement and support, Rich added, “On boarding was smooth. Whiz’s responsiveness to make additions or correct issues during the launch was one of the best experiences we have had with a vendor partner. We look forward in building out the mobile products with them.”

“We are very pleased to be the vendor of choice and a part of the team delivering The Erie Times-News mobile apps and mobile web. These subscription enabled mobile solutions deliver a robust and engaging user experience leveraging state-of-the-art UI/UX technologies designed into the MobileNewsPack^TM ”, said Nikhil Modi, founder and CEO of Whiz Technologies. “Rich and his team worked closely with us.  The end-result is highly customized mobile solutions tailored to the needs of Erie’s readers.”

MobileNewsPack^TM

MobileNewsPack^TM is a white-label mobile solution for newspaper industry, which Whiz will customize and deliver as a service to the publisher. A typical offering includes customized apps for iPhone, iPad, Android Smartphones, Kindle Fire and HTML5 mobile web. Whiz plans to add mobile apps for new platforms as they become available. This makes the MobileNewsPack^TM offering future-proof and relieves customers from ongoing mobile app development, upgrade, compatibility, and support concerns.

Key features included in the MobileNewsPack^TM:

1.     User interface (UI), designed for reading news on-the-go, can be customized to publisher’s UI specifications;

2.     Support for multiple content types -- breaking news, trending news, news categories, photo galleries, video clips, classifieds, obituaries, events and horoscopes;

3.     Mobile advertisement formats –- banner ads, interstitial ads and video pre-roll ads;

4.     Multiple Paid Content models supported -- digital subscription, all-access and in-app purchases;

5.     Mobile Analytics;

6.     Mobile dash board to configure and control app behavior and appearance; no need to resubmit app for app store acceptance;

7.     Future proof solution for publisher – continuous innovation with new UI templates and additional mobile platforms.

At the heart of MobileNewsPack^TM is Whiz’s cloud-based feed normalization engine, a key server technology developed and owned by Whiz.  It ingests and normalizes content from publisher’s content management system (CMS) for delivery to supported mobile apps and mobile web. This allows the publisher to focus on content generation, knowing that, in this MaaS deployment, Whiz is providing post-release app support for digital content distribution to publisher’s mobile apps and mobile web.

Whiz Technologies introduced MobileNewsPack^TM -- Mobile-Apps-as-Service (MaaS) solution -- for the newspaper industry in 2012. Leveraging MobileNewsPack^TM, Whiz has released over one hundred  (100+) mobile apps and mobile web solutions for its newspaper and broadcast TV customers to various app stores.

For additional information, contact Whiz Sales at sales@whizti.com or call (408) 890-6450.

About Whiz Technologies

Based in San Jose, California, USA, Whiz Technologies is a leading provider of custom mobile apps and mobile web software solutions, with a focus on delivering quality solutions to newspaper and broadcast TV publishers, on popular mobile platforms including Smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.