Mobile-First Journalism : a Top Ten list

This discussion originated at Poynter’s Mobile First workshop last week and is slightly edited from suggestions gathered on the Mobile Journalism group on Facebook. And yes, there are 12 items and probably a few good ones still left to be added:

1. Your website is responsively designed with smartphones as the core case.
2. Your executive editor/general manager/publisher uses your mobile site daily.
3. Staffers have smartphones and both consume and report news with them.
4. Special project planning starts with a discussion of mobile elements and presentation.
5. Mobile performance is included in staff goals.
6. You have newsroom and business leaders with ‘mobile’ in their title.
7. When the mobile site/app breaks at 2 a.m. phone calls are made to get it fixed.
8. Your advertising team is selling mobile-first and ads are targeted to devices and locations.
9. Your CMS has multiple content channels allowing different headlines and summary text (etc.) on mobile and web.
10. You have an API that allows ‘data first’ development for current and future devices and partners.
11. “User Experience” and “User Centered Design” are key concepts in your product development process.
12. Fifty percent of your traffic comes via touchscreen devices.