(Annette Moser-Wellman) Some news organizations have told me that it's nearly impossible to figure out how the mobile market will shake out. How can you monetize the mobile experience? With all the complexity around handsets, networks, carriers and formats, who will rise and fall? With all the chores of running a media company in a changing world, how can you figure out the advertising business model on mobile? Why not just wait and see, they ask?

Well, as we've said before at TechScout and will be saying again: The Future Is Mobile! It's critical to jump in and test the waters - now.

One place publishers are beginning to make some money is in the mobile video market. There are an estimated 100 million video-viable cell phones in the United States alone and that's no small market. Further, technology platforms are rising that allow any company to easily monetize their video.

I talked about the opportunity ahead with Frank Barbieri, Founder and CEO of Transpera, a mobile video service that provides an ad platform and ad network to companies such as cbsnews.com. He had much to say.

"Mobile is about three things: immediacy, relevance and sharing. What works in mobile is that sense of immediacy. That's why news and weather do very, very well on mobile, as does sports, because people want what they want whenever they want it. One study indicates that young adults in the 18 to 24 range keep their cell phones within three feet of their person 90% of the time. I often say that the mobile device is the first social networking tool because it has the address book that is really your life. Nobody even remembers phone numbers any more. This relevant engagement leads to sharing. The kind of experiences we will see in the future will bring the power of mobile into a shared community experience," Barbieri says.

But what makes the mobile marketplace so seductive to advertisers is the ability to target these highly engaged audiences. A company like Transpera uses registration data to determine demographics for individual users. They also use contextual targeting and know what kind of content the users are watching and what might be appropriate for advertisers. In addition, Transpera has a behavioral targeting capacity to understand and predict usage patterns. Mapping algorithms help them reach specific sets of consumers.

Interestingly, Transpera's behavioral targeting has broken a myth about mobile video usage. Barbieri expected to see peak usage in daytime hours, when people made their daily commutes. But the company's research reveals that people view video on their phones during daytime hours and at home during prime time. Barbieri suspects usage may look typically like this: families gather in front of television and share a viewing experience while they are all multi-tasking on their mobile phones or laptops. The family might be watching Top Chef on the big screen but, individually, they are chatting with friends, updating their Facebook status or watching videos.

As a result, Barbieri says, "I'm very bullish about the future of media consumption, because the pie just keeps getting bigger with this multi-tasking audience. They can watch a program on television and watch a video on a mobile phone at the same time. I don't see a lot of media-stealing of habits in the long term. There's going to be an additive effect in which people will be doing multiple things at once."

So there's reason to be optimistic about the media business. And reason for every news organization to get aggressive about getting their content on mobile. With mobile penetration growing at an annual rate of about 20% in the US, expect the opportunity to grow. By experimenting and trying some news things out in mobile, you may find that the future is already here.

In our recent report, Running While the Earth Shakes, we called experimentation an essential strategy for innovation in the digital age. Every publisher should be experimenting in the mobile space. In our upcoming blogs, you'll be hearing about some new utilities available that should whet your mobile whistle.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts, experiences and reactions by clicking on the comment button below.

Annette Moser-Wellman is President of Firemark, Inc., an innovation consultancy, and author of Six Competencies of the Next Generation News Organization and Running While The Earth Shakes: Creating An Innovation Strategy To Win In The Digital Age, both published by the Media Management Center. She teaches in MMC's Advanced Executive Program and Digital Strategies for Media Executives seminar.

This TechScout article is part of a series of Moser-Wellman interviews commissioned by the Media Management Center to explore opportunities and insights at the intersection of technology and the news media. Click here to view other articles in the TechScout series.