Revolutionary local news discovery pilot begins in Manchester

An innovative new service beaming highly-targeted, real-time news to people’s mobile phones has launched in Manchester this week.

Called OtherWorld, the trial by Manchester start-up studio Like No Other uses the cutting-edge beacon technology to trigger stories as people walk past them. This could be a local park telling you it is hosting an event in a few days time, team news en route to a football match, or police appeals or breaking news about your current location. As people walk out of range the stories fall away again. The free service works on most smart devices and does not require an app to be downloaded.

Partners for the pilot include Greater Manchester Police, Manchester International Festival, Manchester City Council, NHS, Trinity Mirror, Allied London and Spinningfields, Big Issue, Visit Manchester, Co-op, Manchester Histories, National Football Museum and local businesses, charities and arts venues.

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Adam Comstive, Senior Marketing & Digital Officer at National Football Museum, one of the content partners said:

“The National Football Museum are excited to partner with OtherWorld. Doing so takes our famous collections outside of the museum and on to the busy street for the first time and is a great opportunity to talk to many more passers-by.”

The pilot will be exploring these new opportunities for telling and sharing news. Stuart Goulden, Lead Consultant at Like No Other, said:

“We’re pioneering a brand new storytelling format. One that brings the digital and physical world together to create a more meaningful experience for readers and audiences.

It will be interesting to see how Manchester reacts to this new news ecosystem and to pilot an alternative future for local media that can see it thrive once more.”

The pilot will actively target younger audiences – a generation of people who are not currently engaged in local news but live their lives through their mobile phones.

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The pilot runs in Manchester from 25 July until the end of the year. Anybody wishing to find out more can do so at www.otherworld.io

About Like No Other: 

Like No Other (www.likenoother.co) is the future-led consultancy practice and start-up studio of Stuart Goulden.

As marketing, culture and change specialists, we collaborate with companies looking to transform themselves and the world around them, for good. Stuart Goulden is an award-winning writer and serial entrepreneur who has recently relocated to Manchester.

About the Google Digital News Initiative: 

The Digital News Initiative (DNI) is a $150m collaboration between Google and news publishers across Europe to support high quality journalism and encourage a more sustainable news ecosystem through technology and innovation.