The 2015 Pew Research Center State of the News Media report, was released earlier this year. It confirms what many (digital) media experts have been saying for a long time now: mobile and social rule. Safe to say, mobile is indeed the future of news. We would like to take the opportunity to highlight some key takeaways from the report. The full report can be found here.
1. 39 out of 50 news sites get more traffic from mobile devices than desktop computers
Based on an analysis of data from comScore, the latest State of the Media report found that 39 of the top 50 news websites get more traffic to their sites and associated applications from mobile devices than desktop computers.
2 Key audience trends
There was some good news for network television news, for which the audience grew by 5 percent in 2014, and local TV news stations, which had a 3 percent increase for evening news.
3
Newspapers continue to struggle
Both weekday and Sunday circulation fell around 3% from 2013 to 2014, according to analysis of Alliance for Audited Media data. Overall, newspapers are struggling to survive as an industry.
4 Podcast listening on the rise
Podcast listening is increasing, with NPR’s podcast downloads alone growing 41 percent year over year. Podcast monthly listenership has nearly doubled since 2008, from 9 percent of Americans to 17 percent. One-third of Americans have listened to at least one podcast, compared to just 10 percent in 2006.
5 Social media and political news
Pew Research Center has found that nearly half of adults who use the Web found news about politics and government in the past week on Facebook. The news shown on a social media platform like Facebook is strongly influenced by friends and the newsfeed algorithm.
