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The newspaper industry is undergoing a period of change unlike any it’s seen in at least a century. The rise of online media and the sheer number of new media outlets has traditional newspapers searching for ways to gain new readers and reconnect with existing ones.
Zebra Mobile, based in the Hamilton County Business Center since early 2007, has a solution to delivering news content to a new generation of readers. The firm recently received a $1.25 million Innovation Fund Loan from the State of Ohio for six years for software development costs and equipment purchases. The company plans to match that amount in a project expected to create nine jobs. It also recently completed a round of venture funding that included investors in four cities to help it accelerate delivery of its products.
Zebra Mobile has developed a platform to deliver personalized news and information from newspaper publishers to mobile phones. With about 80 percent of people age 19-65 now owning mobile phones, and phone technology advancing to its third generation, Zebra Mobile is positioned to capitalize on the convergence of these trends.
The company already has well over 100 newspapers using its software, including about 20 papers in the Bay Area, a large cluster on the East Coast, as well as newspapers in Los Angeles, Denver, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Jose and Philadelphia and Cincinnati. The company has grown quickly: at the end of 2006, it had two customers; by the end of 2007, that number had grown to more than 100. Its staff has grown from three to eight and this year alone it has signed up three large newspaper chains to the product, including Hearst Newspapers.
Entrepreneur and founder Vince Broerman says his firm’s technology can not only help newspaper publishers win over new readers, it can help create a better informed community. “This is an opportunity to affect people’s day-to-day lives,” Broerman says.
Zebra Mobile is one example of an innovative, high-tech business using the affordable space and services of the Hamilton County Business Center to get started, says Center Director Patrick Longo. Since 1989, the Center has been the home to more than 200 business start-ups. We assist entrepreneurs by providing flexible space, administrative services, business counseling and assistance, and a vibrant and supportive environment. Currently, there are about 50 clients are participating in the program.
For more information about the Hamilton County Business Center, contact Patrick Longo at 513-631-8292 or at longo@hcdc.com.
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