Ever wonder how your local paper gets far-flung stories or how an obscure bird sighting in remote Alaska makes it onto newspaper pages half a world away? Before there was the Internet, there was the Associated Press. And while its content has typically been provided-at great expense-to paying members who also contribute content, now there's a mobile news app from AP.

From your smartphone, go to www.apnews.com/mobile. Browse national and international news or enter your zip code for the local headlines. You can also then click on "Set Local News Preferences" to have your locale come up automatically.

The AP's mobile application received more than 16 million page views for the month of August, with 948 news organizations signed up to provide content. More than one million local stories featured on the Mobile News Network were read. August marked, what AP calls, the Mobile News Network's first full month following the July 10 release of its iPhone client application.

The network was optimized first for the iPhone to take advantage of the device's multimedia capabilities, and currently 95 percent of traffic comes from the iPhone and iTouch.