App Annie: U.S. Consumer and Business News Index May 2014: News Apps on Mobile Platforms

Table of contents

1. Technology behind the index

2. News consumption is changing in the mobile era

3. Main Trends

a. News apps: 80% of top iOS news apps’ revenue comes from iPad

b. iOS makes more money, but Google Play has more downloads

c . Trusted news organizations dominate on mobile platforms

d. Opportunities to optimize news discovery are always there

4. More impactful applications

1. Technology behind the index

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2. News consumption in the mobile era is changing

News consumption is changing dramatically, thanks to the rise of smartphones and tablets. While newspaper and TV news have fallen to historic lows in two years, mobile devices are reshaping the industry and encouraging Americans to consume and share more news. Although revenue from mobile channels remains low, giants such as NPR and The Wall Street Journal say traffic from mobile is growing rapidly.

Major news organizations are already adapting to new mass media channels. Industry leaders such as The New York Times and CNN have already entered mobile platforms. Their applications are becoming more personalized and sophisticated, catering to the tastes of today's news readers. In this report, we will reveal the top apps in terms of downloads and revenue in the mass and business news categories.

3. Main Trends

News apps : 80% of top iOS news apps' revenue comes from iPads

In May, iPads accounted for 80% of the revenue for news apps in the U.S. iOS store. Consumers consume digital content more often on tablets than on smartphones. And among all non-game apps in the U.S., news apps have twice the share on iPads than on iPhones.

In the US News category , the vast majority of iOS revenue comes from iPad .

Tablets, such as the iPad, are very suitable for consuming news. The larger screen can not only display more content, but also imitate the reading experience of paper newspapers and magazines. Since users usually use tablets at home rather than on the move, readers have more opportunities for in-depth reading. These features make consumers more willing to spend more money on news applications on tablets.

Compared to non-news apps, The New York Times iPad app has also achieved significant revenue success. From September 2013 to February 2014, its monthly revenue ranked in the top ten of non-game iOS apps across all platforms worldwide for six consecutive months.

iOS is more profitable , Google Play has more downloads

In May, the top 10 U.S. general and business news apps had three times as many downloads on Google Play as they did on iOS. Considering that non-game downloads were almost the same on both platforms in the U.S. in May, Google Play has performed well in terms of news app downloads.

Compared with iOS , the number of downloads of news category on Google Play in the United States is significantly higher.

Of the cross-platform news apps on the list, 95% of revenue comes from iOS. As iOS continues to bring in more revenue, there is still a huge imbalance in the news category. As shown above, iPad is a big reason for this. It is worth mentioning that three of the top apps can only be downloaded from iOS. Even excluding these factors, the imbalance between revenue and downloads is still significant.

This imbalance shows that Google Play and iOS users are using news apps in different ways. News organizations should keep this in mind when developing mobile apps and formulating monetization strategies. It will be interesting to see how the companies on these rankings respond to the different opportunities on different platforms.

Trusted news organizations dominate on mobile platforms

Given the subjective nature of news and reporting, brand and reputation play a decisive role in the success of app publishers. According to the Reuters 2013 Digital News Report, 82% of Americans prefer to read news from sources they trust. So it's no surprise that 14 of the 20 news apps on the list come from well-established news organizations, many of which have been active in the industry for decades.

But newcomers still have a chance to succeed. Flipboard, BuzzFeed, Zinio and Pocket have all gained trust and recognition in the news industry. It is worth mentioning that these applications only aggregate news, and the content still comes from other sources. They focus on software design and innovation to make reading content interesting, interactive and more consumable.

BuzzFeed 's main interface is fun and customizable

Pocket integrates social network sharing

Opportunities to optimize news discovery are always there

A sound App Store Optimization (ASO) strategy has the potential to drive new app success. For example, App Annie ASO data shows that Zinio is the top search result for the keyword "magazine." Zinio's success in optimizing its product description and keywords increases the chances of new users discovering and downloading the app. Zinio ranks fifth among news apps.

On May 31 , a keyword search for " magazine " in the iOS store showed 2,200 search results , with Zinio ranking first.

We can see that the news app "Yahoo", which was the most downloaded app in May, did not appear in the top 50 search results for the keywords "news" or "breaking news". This may be because users position Yahoo differently - for example, searching for "Yahoo" directly in the App Store or browsing the charts. This shows that even the most successful apps still have the opportunity to improve their chances of being discovered by enhancing their ranking in search results.

The above picture shows the App Annie ASO results for the Yahoo iPhone app in May .

4. More influential applications

Pocket explores monetization strategies

Pocket reported having over 10 million users in September 2013 and ranked sixth in the top news apps in May. As the app is still free to download, the company is exploring new revenue streams from a larger user base. Recently, the company introduced enhanced search, storage, and tagging features as new paid features.

Consumer -generated news content

Consumers are engaging with breaking news and generating their own content through mobile apps. Several top apps, including USA Today, CNN and BBC News, have tools within the app to encourage users to upload stories, photos and videos to share with the community. Some outstanding stories from CNN iReport are also added to the official news.

Users share breaking news via CNN iReport .

Notes:

• The App Annie Index shows the app rankings based on download and profit estimates provided by App Annie Intelligence. All users can track and view the daily ranking history and homepage app data through App Annie Store Stats.
• All apps and publishers in this index are listed under their parent companies; for example, the CNN News app is listed under its parent company Time Warner, not its direct publisher CNN. If you browse to the page of the parent publisher of Warner on Store Stats, you will see publishers that belong to Warner, including CNN. The CNN News app is listed on the page of the CNN publisher.
• The App Annie Index's profit rankings are based on paid downloads and in-app consumer profits on the iOS and Google Play stores. In-app advertising profits are not included.
• Certain trademarks and images in this report may be the property of third parties. App Annie disclaims all ownership rights.
• The General and Business News Index includes apps identified by App Annie based on its existing content and information related to general and business news, including text, voice and food. It does not include news for vertical categories. Vertical categories include but are not limited to:
  • News on automobiles, education, entertainment, fashion, health, home and gardening, investing and stocks, politics, real estate, science, sports, technology and games