USA Today regrets making iPhone app free

USA Today is looking to the mobile platform and ereading devices as a means to significantly expand the daily newpaper's revenue stream--in fact, new publisher David Hunke tells the Associated Press he regrets the decision to make USA Today's iPhone news application available for free. "I'm not sure we realized what we had," Hunke said. "I think that's a value readers will be willing to pay for."

USA Today announced the launch of its iPhone app in late December, leveraging the look and feel of the print edition to offer mobile access to News, Money, Sports, Life, Tech and Travel headlines, interactive polls, GPS-enabled weather updates and photos. Users may share content email, text message or Twitter. The USA Today app, designed and developed in cooperation with Mercury Intermedia, also boasts support for rich media mobile advertising formats including click-to-call, click-to-maps using the user's GPS location and video.

For more on USA Today's mobile outlook:
- read this Associated Press article

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