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Newspapers Beat Blogs on Mobility

Significantly more newspaper websites offer mobile versions of their content than blogs, according to research carried out by The Bivings Group, a Washington DC-based Internet communications firm. Ian Delaney reports.

Significantly more newspaper websites offer mobile versions of their content than blogs, according to research carried out by The Bivings Group, a Washington DC-based Internet communications firm. Ian Delaney reports.

Comparing the 50 most popular US newspaper websites and the most linked-to 50 English-language blogs, the study found that just 24% (twelve) of the blogs provided mobile content, while 54% (27) of newspapers offered a mobile browsing option.

The writers of the report also found that there was a considerable degree of inconsistency when it came to how mobile versions were published. For example, a number of the top blogs belonging to the Gawker network use a third-party service from MobilePlay. Frequently, mobile versions of blog sites have a different URL, but there appeared to be no convention for the formation of these addresses. Others use the Plusmo, Hubdog or ZapTXT services. When it comes to newspapers, there are paid and free models, versions which require particular browsers, and still others which will offer to deliver text message updates but don't actually have mobile versions of their actual websites.

Given that blogs are often viewed as more modern than newspapers, it may be surprising that the mainstream media sites are more than twice as likely to offer mobile access than blogs.

I can suggest four reasons for the differences. Perhaps readers can think of more:

• Newspapers are mainly about current events - today's news - and therefore mobile access is of greater importance. If you want to know the news, you want it now. Blog entries, on the other hand, are often less time sensitive and can wait until readers can schedule their next visit.
• Making a blog mobile-ready might involve effort and investment which the owners of the blog are not prepared to make. Many blogs - even in the top 50 - are not-for-profit, others are intended to enhance PR and marketing.
• Newspapers can deliver extra value and extra readers to advertisers by offering a mobile version. Bloggers are arguably less likely to be concerned about this, though perhaps they ought to be.
• Bloggers are more focused on the distribution of content than they are upon page impressions. They typically allow for a full-text RSS feed, aiming to allow their content to be as portable as possible. Since RSS is viewable on mobile phones, they already have mobile access covered off in some senses. Blogs are often measured by influence - through Technorati and Google rankings - rather than page views.