Half Of UK Smartphone Users Read Online News Every Day
British consumers are increasingly relying on their mobile devices to connect to the Web and access online content. For many UK smartphone owners their mobile devices are also an important tool for keeping up-to-date with the latest news, as more than half of them visit at least two news sites every day.
The findings come from a new report by mobile advertising network Mojiva, called “The State of Mobile News Consumption”, which also reveals that one in five smartphone users in the UK choose their devices as the primary tool to stay informed. British consumers are the most avid readers of mobile news in Europe, with close to half of users saying they use smartphones and tablets regularly to reach news content online. Despite that, more than two-thirds of mobile device users claim they would not pay for a subscription to access their favourite news source.
Moreover, two in three of those polled say they pay more attention to mobile ads if their content is relevant to the news story they are reading. Relevance emerged as the most important factor that determines users´ receptiveness to mobile ads, cited by nearly a quarter of the respondents. Other features that users find important for mobile advertising to work include humour (20%) and a restricted number of ads overall (16%).
According to Amy Vale, vice president of global research and strategic communications at Mojiva, people are not necessarily replacing one news source with another but rather use a number of platforms as a means to get a more varied news experience.