Study suggests US newspapers have mobile catch-up to do

0

A research and consulting firm has rated the apps of newspapers on a global scale, focusing on English-language and Western European properties and found ten worthy of state-of-the-art status. Only two of them are from the United States. But four of them come from a company very active in the US – News Corporation.


As it turns out, News Corporation’s Australian spawning ground is the top area on the planet when it comes to newspaper apps, placing four titles on the top ten list.

The only US newspaper apps to make the list are News Corp.’s Wall Street Journal and Hearst’s San Francisco Chronicle for iPad.

The research firm is McPheters & Company, and the chart is based on its iMonitor rating system which tracks about 3,500 media-related applications.

It bases its scores on “…design, functionality, and use of rich media.” A maximum score of five points is awarded in each area, creating a perfect score potential of 15. Its top ten list is comprised of newspaper apps receiving a score of 14.5 each.

CEO Rebecca McPheters said, “Compared with other apps, newspapers have the added challenge of producing a new product every day. These apps have all attained our highest rating and are consistently outstanding.”

iMonitor™ Top 10 Newspaper Apps
App (Country) Publisher
BILD HD (Germany) Axel Springer AG
El Pais (Spain) PRISA
Herald Sun (Australia) News Corp.
MailOnline for iPad (UK) Daily Mail and General Trust
San Francisco Chronicle for iPad (USA) Hearst Communications, Inc.
Sunday Times UK (UK) News Corp.
The Age for iPad (Australia) Fairfax Media Publications
The Courier-Mail/The Sunday Mail (Australia) News Corp.
The SMH for iPad (Australia) Fairfax Media Publications
The Wall Street Journal (USA) News Corp.

RBR-TVBR NOTE: We encourage all to “Like” on Facebook and become a social media editor with RBR-TVBR

We urge all to http://twitter.com/#!/RBRTVBR join the broadcaster social media Voice