Looking for breaking news?
You’re most likely to be doing it mobile.
That’s in line with a recent study by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). Conducted by comScore, the study showed that 80 percent of U.S. adult internet users accessed digital news content.
When it comes to unique visitors, the digital newspaper audience came in at 164 million this past August—an 18 percent YOY increase.
Mobile devices are driving the growth. The percentage of mobile-only digital newspaper readers more than doubled between August 2013 and August 2014, while the portion of unique visitors who only looked at news on desktops and laptops dropped 16 percent.
True, not all mobile users had ditched their home computers, but nonetheless the number of readers who looked at digital news via mobile and nonmobile devices rose 48 percent.
“Thanks to massive growth, mobile-only news readers represented the largest portion of the digital newspaper audience, at 38 percent of the total,” noted eMarketer in a story about the study. “Despite its decline, the PC-only group still beat out those who used a combination of mobile and nonmobile devices, with respective shares of 34 percent and 28 percent.”
Interestingly, young females (18-24) showed the largest increase in mobile-only readership, leaping 204 percent year over year. Males ages 35 to 44 and 45 to 54 had the second- and third-biggest rises, at impressive rates of 188 percent and 163 percent, respectively.
And don’t count out the “older generation.” The mobile-only newspaper audience also more than doubled among women 55 and older (122 percent) and 25-to-34-year-old men (119 percent).
