News apps on the rise, but social media still rules mobile

News apps have certainly made inroads among the mainstream mobile crowd, but they still play second fiddle to social networking and gaming apps. Nielsen found that one-third of all tablet and smartphone users had downloaded a news app in the past 30 days, and 19% had paid for one. But games, music and social-networking were still the apps of choice, with games garnering a sweeping 68 percent and social networking following with 45 percent. A bright spot among the numbers was that approximately 51 percent indicated they would put up with ads if it meant they could access the content for free.

While more and more people are choosing to read their news on the go, most people are still opting to get that news via social media as opposed to dedicated news apps. Recent data from Flurry, a web analytics firm, showed that U.S. mobile or tablet app users spend about 30 percent of their time on social-networking apps like Twitter and Facebook. That compares with only 6 percent of their time on news apps. Gaming, of course, still managed to capture the most eyeballs, with 49 percent. So does all this mean that media organizations should give up on news apps? Not necessarily, said Poynter’s Jeff Sonderman. “An app is good for at least two things: Serving the most-loyal fraction of your established audience, and getting them to pay.”

• Nielsen: One-third of mobile users downloaded news apps in past month (Poynter)
  
• Half of mobile users willing to watch ads for free app content (Ars Technica)
  
• You Watch a Lot of Web Video. You Watch Way More TV. (AllThingsD)
  
• Flurry: Mobile App Usage Up To 94 Minutes Per Day (TechCrunch)
  
• Web consumption wanes as mobile app usage skyrockets (VentureBeat)
  
• Facebook helps app usage outpace the Web (ZDNet)
  
• Mobile app use soars while mobile browsing wanes (GigaOm)