AP Mobile is beefing up its local news sector with the addition of all 30 McClatchy Co. newspapers in an effort to woo local advertisers.

Two McClatchy newspapers, The Sacramento Bee and The Miami Herald, were already a part of the AP Mobile network. With the new partnership, AP Mobile said it hopes to attract some of McClatchy?s local advertisers to the mobile platform.

?It?s a great selection of newspapers that will simply add more depth and breadth to our network of local sites,? said Jane Seagrave, senior vice president of global product development at The Associated Press, New York.

AP Mobile launched in May 2008 and is a multimedia news portal developed by The Associated Press that provides access to international, national and local news.

Besides AP?s worldwide coverage of topics such as news, sports and business, more than 1,000 AP members and third-party sources provide content for AP Mobile.

The Associated Press is a global news network founded in 1846.

The McClatchy Co. is the third-largest newspaper company in the United States. It has 30 daily newspapers, approximately 50 nondailies, as well as direct marketing and direct mail operations.

Ms. Seagrave said McClatchy?s addition to AP Mobile opens up key markets in California, Missouri, Kansas, Texas and Florida.

In June, The Associated Press updated the AP Mobile iPhone application and launched an application for the Palm Pre. It also has a WAP site and applications for BlackBerry and Nokia devices.

After the soft launch of version 2.0 of the AP Mobile application, a new version was released in the Apple App Store in response to user feedback.

Like AP's iPhone and Nokia/Symbian applications, AP's Palm Pre application lets consumers customize a homepage of the latest stories and press releases in more than a dozen different categories (see story).

AP receives regular reports from mobile users on breaking local news via the Send to AP feature on all of its applications and its mobile Web site.

These firsthand accounts have generated a number of stories that are then fed nationwide and worldwide via AP?s wire service.

Sixty-three percent of AP Mobile users are in the 18-34 age bracket.

Fifty-three percent of AP Mobile users earn more than $75,000 per year, with men representing 78 percent of all traffic, and 82 percent for sports.

Adding McClatchy?s papers furthers AP Mobile?s drive for local news coverage. Ms. Seagrave said she hopes adding new key local markets will open up AP Mobile to new advertisers.

?It is part of the game plan to sell against our inventory,? Ms. Seagrave said. ?It is part of our strategy and the attraction of local partners to join our national network.

?The whole point of AP Mobile is to stress and incorporate a really great local experience,? she said.