Snippets of news, via cellphone
Start-up aims to be local, snappy, social
Thumbcasts are coming to Boston.
Today, the local start-up 80108 Media will begin sending snappy "insider" text messages to subscribers' cellphone screens.
The bite-size event alerts, music reviews, and news snippets will be broken into categories, ranging from "Ballroom Dancing" to "Gay Girl 411," and will be penned by a team of two dozen glib thumbcasters.
"What we're looking to do is not to fill, but really to create a service by and for this generation of mobile users who are very active socially, who tend to be out and about quite a bit," said Rob Adler , chief executive and cofounder of the company. "As much time as they spend online, they spend a lot of time offline -- but they're always on their mobile."
The medium is much of the message for the company, which has raised $12 million in venture funding and boasts Sid Holt , former managing editor of Rolling Stone, as vice president of programming.
The company's founders say they saw a gap in mobile offerings. There were businesses selling commodities like ringtones and games for the mobile Web. National media organizations posted major news on the mobile Web. But there weren't services that took full advantage of the cellphone's capabilities as an intensely local and social device, Adler and Holt said.
Over the past year, 80108 has pulled together a team of writers with expertise in niche topics, a sense of what's hip, and an "authentic" local voice to write for 30 channels that focus mainly on entertainment and lifestyle topics.
There are plans to launch 80108 in more than a dozen other pilot markets this year.
But the company will have to overcome some major challenges, said Jennifer Simpson , an analyst at Yankee Group.
"The biggest thing is audience relevancy," Simpson said.
Even a subscriber with an avid interest in comedy or Boston sports, for instance, could easily begin to find the thrice-weekly messages in those categories obnoxious if they are not pitch-perfect.
To solve that problem, the company is creating narrowly focused channels, from Steals and Deals, which promises to leak news about secret sales and bargains, to Volunteering, a channel for people who trust their cellphone screen to instruct them on how they can make the world a better place.
The point, in a way, is to make readers feel like they are in on a secret.
A typical message from Boston: On the Cheap cites the popular college drinking game Beirut without further explanation. "T or F: You never really outgrow Beirut. If you answered 'T' to this question, consider making Beerpong @ the Kells a Monday night tradition."
On the channel called Boston: Hip hop, a recent 160-character story is crammed with slang and name-dropping that could be disorienting if it went out to the general public:
"Glue sticks up Boston: New Hampshire battle rap legend Adeem (a/k/a ADM) hits Great Scott Wednesday night with his Glue crew."
With a mix of writers -- including bloggers, parents, and even a guy who teaches the history of punk rock at Tufts University -- the company hopes its messages will gain credibility and a dedicated audience that will eventually translate into big business.
"This is an early stage company, but there's no question in our minds that there are hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue in this segment or a related segment," said John Simon, a venture capitalist at General Catalyst Partners who cofounded the company.
The company may eventually implement paid subscriptions, ad-supported channels, and a function that allows people to click on the message and call the ticket or reservation booth at a restaurant.
But before it rolls out a money-making scheme, the company would like to cultivate a base of loyal subscribers and find cool correspondents who can turn 160 letters into something interesting and informative.
Michael Fournier , a text-message correspondent who lectures on the history of punk rock at Tufts University, authors the channel known as Boston: AntiPop and has already honed his technique: He describes bands in a playful, tongue-twisting vernacular that conveys personality and information.
"I'll decide I'm going to call this band jittery off-kilter spazz core, and I assume the reader will get the joke," he said.
"Unless I was running low on characters -- in which case i would use one z in spazz."
Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com. 