Once again, mobile takes the spotlight. It won’t be long until mobile devices are the most common way people in the United States access the Internet. CNN reports that new research from Localytics “shows that mobile users spend roughly the same amount of time with news apps as they do with Twitter’s mobile app, about 115 minutes per month.”
The report implies that smartphone and tablet apps for news could indeed offer an advantage to mobile advertisers. The data shows that people spend just two-thirds as much time using mobile apps for entertainment, health and fitness, sports and music. The more time people spend in apps, the more attractive the apps become for advertising. This is exciting for news media colleagues in the fact that they hope news apps might help save the ad-supported news business and even help keep traditional newspapers afloat.
However, here’s the thing: When it comes to news organizations, they wouldn’t necessarily be getting all or even most of the ad dollars from their news apps. Why? It’s because some of the most popular news apps don’t come directly from print or broadcast news brands.
Not to mention, that most news brand who do offer mobile apps, don’t sell their own in-app ads. They serve ads from revenue-sharing mobile ad networks which can be generic and lacking in relevance.
Therefore, if a boom in mobile advertising ends up actually supporting and benefiting national and global advertisers, ad networks and outlets, then more people will keep getting less and less access to local news. And this could potentially have profound effects on communities.
What are your thoughts? Do you use mobile apps to keep up with your news?
Tags: Industry Trends, Mobile App