April 04, 2012

More than twice as many mobile users prefer news orgs’ mobile websites over apps

Edit this item

Many news organizations still put most of their mobile budget into developing native apps for smartphone and tablet platforms. But new research shows that mobile users are vastly more likely to prefer getting news via the mobile web, rather than through apps provided by news organizations…

Roger Fidler, director of the Digital Publishing Alliance at the Reynolds School of Journalism (Univ. MO-Columbia) presented his research findings at the annual conference of the American Society of News Editors.

Earlier this year Fidler’s team surveyed 1015 randomly selected people across the U.S. Nearly 60% use a smartphone, 21% use a “large media tablet” (probably mostly iPads), 13% use an e-reader, and 7% use a small media tablet (such as the Kindle Fire). Four in 10 currently subscribe to at least one print newspaper or news magazine.

One of the questions Fidler explored was: Which presentation formats do owners of mobile media devices prefer for reading news?

Over half—54% of respondents—said they prefer to visit news org websites to get news on their mobile devices. In contrast, only 22% reported a preference for apps offered by news organizations.

The mobile news audience is pretty big. “Keeping up with the news” was the fourth most popular mobile activity cited by participants—after interpersonal communication, entertainment, and non-news mobile web use.

Also, participants vastly preferred getting news on their mobile device over getting news from print newspapers or TV/radio news.

In a related ASNE presentation, Missouri School of Journalism professor Mike Jenner found:

• In 2011 62% of U.S. dailies with 25,000+ circulation had at least one mobile phone app—compared to only 21% of smaller dailies.
• Nearly 60% of dailies which lacked smartphone apps last year planned to launch them this year.
• In 2011 39% of large dailies offered a tablet app, compared to just 9% of smaller dailies.
• Nearly half of dailies which lacked tablet apps last year plan to add them this year.

Neither research project specifically examined how many news organizations have optimized their web presence for mobile visitors.

Since the mobile web is what mobile users strongly prefer, perhaps continuing to invest overwhelmingly in apps rather than updating the mobile web experience might be shortsighted.

See presentation slides by Fidler and Jenner. The complete report will be published soon.

The News for Digital Journalists blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

By Amy Gahran, 04/04/12 at 11:38 am