Poynter.org
A new Pew study found that tablet users are more likely to pay for content than general news consumers, and “power users” (who read news on apps) are the most likely of the tablet users to pay for news. But publishers pursuing mobile strategies are seeking not only revenue; they’re counting on other benefits as well, including wider reach and perhaps new print subscribers. So, which news organizations are attracting new readers on tablets?
The phone survey (conducted July 15-30) of 1,159 tablet users found newspapers are drawing new audience to their products. Of the 894 respondents who read news on their tablets weekly, 40 percent said they are getting news from newspapers that they did not rely on as a source before. Ten percent said they get news from USA Today on their tablets and did not get news from the paper or website before. Ten percent said the same of CNN.
| Survey question: What news source or sources do you get news from on your [iPad/tablet/tablets] that you did not get news from before? (open-ended responses, 5 allowed) | |
| % | News source |
| 40 | Newspapers |
| 10 | USA Today |
| 9 | New York Times |
| 7 | Wall Street Journal |
| 5 | Local newspapers |
| 3 | Washington Post |
| 3 | International Newspapers other |
| 1 | Financial Times |
| 1 | The Guardian |
| 19 | Cable TV |
| 10 | CNN |
| 5 | Fox News |
| 2 | MSNBC |
| 1 | CNBC |
| 1 | ESPN |
| 18 | Online |
| 5 | Huffington Post |
| 3 | The Daily |
| 1 | Drudge Report |
| 1 | Slate.com |
| 1 | Yahoo |
| 1 | Politico |
| 1 | Google News |
| 1 | Slate.com |
A little more than half of the respondents (54 percent) were not print subscribers, while 46 percent were. About a quarter of those print subscriptions included digital access.
“Power users” who rely on apps for news, decide which apps to download based first on whether “They were from a news organization you like” (84 percent said this is a major factor) and whether they were free (83 percent said this is a major factor). Recommendations, reviews and ads were less important.
