WNET, the local member station of PBS, is to announce today its new iPhone app, MetroFocus–a mobile version of the site of the same name. The app is to feature original WNET content on local news (particularly culture news) in video form as well as the ability to save location-based stories and visit the settings later (integrated with the geographically-based FourSquare app). News features like weather and traffic are to be incorporated as well.
“We see this mobile app as another way to distribute our content—public media needs to deliver content to every device and let people choose which way they want to interact with our programs and our projects,” said Dan Greenberg, head of WNET’s Interactive Engagement Group. “We used to be a television company, now we’re a media company.” The content from MetroFocus online–on the mobile and regular web–will build towards a series of specials on air this summer. “In the old model, we might have done a different way,” said Mr. Greenberg, acknowledging that television content has traditionally driven web content for stations like WNET.
