12.15.2013

Mobile News App Usage On The Rise, Will News Organizations Still Stay Afloat?

According to an article written in CNN, it seem as though the use of mobile news applications are becoming more and more popular among audience members. Many people seem to prefer keeping up with the news using this particular medium because of it's easy access and up-to-date content. And I for one agree that the use of mobile news applications is more practical, and allows individuals to consume news much more quickly and efficiently.

CNN says that in just a couple of years, mobile devices are likely to be the most common way people in the United States access the Internet. Meanwhile more and more newspapers and other traditional news outlets, especially those that provide local and regional news, are likely to keep getting smaller or possibly even lose business completely.

It is expected that major news organizations will be gravitating toward the use of mobile applications in order to save many ad-supported news businesses and perhaps even keep broadcast news and traditional print newspaper operations afloat.

Applications such as Flipboard, Pulse and Google Currents, are all very popular mobile news aggregator applications that people enjoy using. And publishers who distribute their content through such third-party mobile news tools earn a cut of the resulting ad revenue.

However, according to the CNN article, while most major news organizations do offer their own smartphone or tablet apps, some of these applications often become costly to develop and maintain, which can make them a rather dicey operation to deal with in such an industry.

So, what do you all think? Should news outlets develop more mobile applications? Do you think these apps will help the industry in the long-run or not?

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