RIM recently announced the application of its push technology to news, so that you can receive custom updates on your phone as news that interest you breaks.

The CBC and Washingtonpost.com are two of the major players working to implement the new, opt-in feature, called BlackBerry Web Signals, for their mobile users. So, for example, the washingtonpost.com icon on a BlackBerry smartphone's home screen will change to reflect a breaking political story, sports piece or other topics of coverage that users sign up to receive.

BlackBerry Web Signals also presents an opportunity for content providers to exercise a new strategy for attracting and maintaining viewers. Watch this space for details about who's offering Web Signals or how to develop your own.

Today, you can get news on your BlackBerry by simply visiting the mobile sites of your favorite news organizations (many now have m. sites, but there's always the old www site, which you generally can read acceptably on a smartphone). Or, you can download a news organization's BlackBerry service, many of which are free, RIM.