Text Messaging Featured Article

In Blytheville, Ariz., the local Courier News is trying out a new strategy to engage their readers: text alerts. Earlier this month, the news service launched the new TxtAlert program that subscribers can customize to fit their needs. Depending on which news topics the subscriber feels are most important to them, the program will deliver Courier News headlines and alerts, in addition to weather reports, sports scores, school notices, community events and more.

In today's highly mobile world, a text alert almost feels old-fashioned, considering that more and more people are buying and using smartphones and that there are apps that can perform the same task. Despite this, the simple truth remains that not all people have smartphones that can run apps, and that developing cross-platform apps is strictly more expensive than a simple text alert system.

Because it is a text alert instead of an app, the Courier News can rest assured knowing that their news stories have a very broad reach. “This is just another way our staff is working to keep our community informed,” said Andy Weld, Courier News editor. “We recognize that in today's society, people are getting information from a variety of sources, and this is a way for us to deliver information to people through something almost everyone carries around in their purse or pocket.”

Instead of forcing spam to its readers, the Courier News TxtAlert is an opt-in program that subscribers of the newspaper or news site can access for free. This helps avoid creating unwanted spam for those that use the program, as only those that specifically ask for the service will actually receive it. The thorough registration process ensures that subscribers are the only ones receiving the texts, yet it is still simple enough registration process to complete in three minutes or less.