The World Association of Newspapers reports that there is currently opportunities for newspapers thanks to mobile technology. I am here to add that this opportunity is largely untapped in the “less than metro areas” of the US. I have seen papers like the Seattle P.I. begin to embrace what mobile technology has to offer, yet the paper in my hometown has yet to get a clue.

That is the key conclusion of a new report, “The Mobile Opportunity,” from the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project of the World Association of Newspapers.

“Mobile has other benefits as well: it provides a new avenue for gathering information to build knowledge of reader needs and interests; it provides a bridge to the next generation of readers; it is interactive; it can add value to services offered to advertisers; and it can reduce administrative and workflow costs,” says the report, available exclusively to WAN members and subscribers to the SFN project.