Mobile news on the rise as print decline continues

For news publishers, it's a mobile world.

More readers are coming from mobile devices than computers for 39 of the top 50 digital news sites, influencing publishers' decisions on a wide range of editorial and advertising strategies, said a new Pew Research Center study released Wednesday.

Growth in mobile ad spending outpaced all other platforms, explaining publishers' determination to tailor their content for the small screen. Mobile ad spending rose 78%, accounting for 37% of all digital ad spending.

But in a slight variation of the trend that speaks to the limited functionality of mobile devices, visitors using computers "tend to spend more time per visit" than mobile visitors, Pew's annual State of the News Media report said.

In a comprehensive study that seeks to capture the state of media, Pew also said the newspaper business continues to decline while TV news remains resilient. Newspaper ad revenue fell 4% last year to $19.9 billion — less than half of what it was a decade ago — but local TV news revenue grew 7% to about $20 billion.

Newspapers' weekday and Sunday circulation also fell about 3% from 2013 to 2014, Pew said, citing data from Association for Audited Media.

Meanwhile, local TV news' viewership rose 3%, underscoring the enduring appeal of crime news and weather reports and the massive retransmission fees that cable companies pay to keep them in their lineups. Network television news, despite much brouhaha over its long-term decline, saw a second straight year of audience growth, up 5% and totaling about 24 million evening viewers.

Unless you're big, digital revenue remains an elusive target for many publishers, even though the amount of money paid by advertisers to get their brand on video and display ads across all media grew 18% in 2014 to $50.7 billion, Pew said, citing research firm eMarketer. Five companies — Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL — captured 61% of domestic digital ad revenue in 2014, it said. Digital ads make up about a quarter of all media advertising spending.

While newspaper circulation is falling, the appeal of print still holds sway for many readers. More than half of readers — 56% — still read newspaper content in print only, the study said. Newspaper publishers have a reason to hold onto their ink barrels as well, with $16.4 billion still spent on print ads. But that's down from $17.3 billion a year ago. Their digital ad revenue totaled $3.5 billion, flat from a year ago.

As revenue declines, so does the industry's employment. Overall newspaper newsroom employment fell 3% in 2013 — the most recent year for which figures are available — to 36,700, the report said, citing the American Society of News Editors' Newsroom Employment Census.

The report also confirmed other news consumption findings that are familiar to publishers. Among them:

*Dour cable news business outlook. Cable news' prime-time viewership fell 8% across the three major channels: CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. Fox News, the ratings leader, had a 1% decline.

*Radio renaissance. About 35% of cellphone-owning adults have listened to online radio in the car, up from 21% in 2013. Podcasting's resurgence has helped. About 17% of Americans said in January they had listened to a podcast in the past month vs. 9% in 2008.

*Dominance of national digital names. It helps to be a national player when it comes to online traffic, the report says. Yahoo-ABC News had 130 million unique visitors in January, the clear leader in online news. It was trailed by CNN, NBC News and The Huffington Post.

Local news sites — many of them affiliated with prominent local newspapers — have more limited readership online. For example, The Dallas Morning News has about 7 million visitors.

Among newspaper websites, USAToday.com is the leader in "total digital population" — a combination of both mobile and desktop readership — with 255.8 million unique visitors in January. NYTimes.com (234.7 million) and DailyMail.co.uk (54.5 million) followed.

The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Bleacher Report are the "digital-native" news sites with the highest amount of online traffic, respectively. Surprisingly making the top 10 digital-native site list is Vox.com, a news explainer site founded by former Washington Post writer Ezra Klein.