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NEW YORK — The Wall Street Journal launched a wireless application for BlackBerry smart phones Tuesday as news organizations look for opportunities to tap an emerging market for mobile advertising.
The free WSJ.com Mobile Reader will let users view headlines, summaries and full articles — previously viewed articles will be available for some time even if the user loses wireless connectivity.
Users can customize content based on category lists, keywords and other criteria. Users can also track specific companies, getting headlines and stock quotes, though with a delay of up to 30 minutes.
Content will come from The Wall Street Journal Digital Network — the newspaper's WSJ.com site along with MarketWatch.com, Barrons.com and AllThingsD.com. Users will have the option to pull content from other sources as well, including rival sites and blogs with Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, feeds.
The Journal, owned by News Corp.'s Dow Jones & Co. unit, plans to begin showing ads from an unnamed advertiser beginning next month. There are no plans to charge for the WSJ.com Mobile Reader, although the company will eventually make some content available only to paying subscribers of its newspaper or Web site.
Earlier this year, The Associated Press launched an ad-supported service with more than 100 member newspapers to make news stories available on Apple Inc.'s iPhone and other mobile devices.
