It’s no exaggeration to say that local newspapers in their printed form are facing the most challenging period of their lives, so it’s only sensible to invest in other media - like the one in everyone’s pocket. Gannett-owned Newsquest Media Group today announces the launch of 148 mobile sites with news, sport and travel updates to compliment its local and regional newspaper websites. The sites, such as mobile.theargus.co.uk, went live two weeks ago, but are only being announced due to technical difficulties, now resolved, with an unnamed mobile operator.

Roger Green, MD of Newsquest Digital Media, told me today: “I can’t make claims for anyone else but it’s probably one of the largest mobile networks around, it’s a big step for us. Whenever the year of mobile is, we’ll be ready.” Green says Newsquest had extensively rolled out WAP sites through its previous site management technology, but these had lost their appeal with the advance of smartphones and improvement of general phone browsing. The new mobile sites feature re-purposed content from sites like thetelegraphandargus.co.uk and Lancashiretelegraph.co.uk, but Green says that the functionality of the sites will be “significantly” improved in time.