Survey: Love of mobile news does not = pay for mobile news
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A new survey finds that nearly half of all adult Americans say they use their cellphone or a tablet computer to get at least some of their local news -- particularly ‘news you can use,’ such as the weather and restaurant tips.
The increasingly mobile nature of the news audience is described in a report to be released Monday by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Although the portability of news may be good for news outlets, the challenge remains: how to make money on the service.
Many information providers hope to charge for mobile ‘apps’ to recoup the cost of news gathering and making a profit. But the project’s survey of more than 2,200 Americans finds that only one in 10 mobile customers use apps to get their local information and only 10% of that smaller number pay for the news applications. The net: just one in 100 American adults pays for an app to access the news.
Although newspapers continue to provide most unique local news, the survey showed a minority of Americans willing to pay to keep that information coming online. Of survey respondents, 23% said they would pay $5 a month to get full access to local newspaper content online. That figure dropped to 18% if they would have to pay $10 per month, 18% of adults said yes -- although that’s still considerably higher than the 5% of adults who now pay for online local news.
The mobile users plug in, tune in and turn on via a plethora of devices. Of those who use their mobile devices for news, 51% said they acquire information via six or more different sources or platforms per month. And 75% of the ‘mobile’ group connect via social networks.
The survey is part of the Washington-based organization’s 2011 State of the News Media Report.
For those of you keeping score at home: New Ways to Consume News = Infinite. New Ways to Pay for News = Elusive.
-- James Rainey
Twitter: latimesrainey
