In the UK, we have already seen that significant numbers of people are using smartphones (28%) and tablets (8%) to access the news every week, but this doesn’t give a sense of how important these devices are today and how this might change.

We asked online users their main way of accessing news and, though the computer is still dominant as an access point, for a significant minority mobiles are emerging as the most important device (13%).

Again, the demographic story is particularly interesting with the younger groups showing strongest affinity towards accessing news via a mobile phone. More than a quarter of the 25–34 year old group (27%) say their main way of accessing online news is now through a mobile phone, whereas the over 55s show almost no interest in accessing news this way. Tablet users show a different spread, with the cost putting them outside the reach of most younger users but with older groups starting to embrace the simplicity and ease of use.

Both smartphone and tablet access is even more male- dominated than general computer news usage (60% male usage for tablet and 55% for mobile). Mobile news use is also particularly focused on the C1 lower middle class grouping (38%), whereas tablets are overwhelmingly the preserve of the AB middle and upper middle class (43%). As prices fall and penetration of both types of devices grows it will be interesting to see if these demographic differences even out.

Partly as a result of these demographic differences, the types of news stories accessed by device also varies – though the mobile context is also a factor. Stories that update regularly – such as sports scores and financial information – are proportionally more heavily accessed from smartphones (36% and 34%) than general news (28%). Celebrity news and technology stories, which tend to be widely shared via social apps, also tend to over-index on mobiles and tablets.

Mobile and tablet experience compared with a fixed computer

Specifically we asked some questions about the quality of experience on a mobile and tablet and about the costs of access, which are sometimes more of a factor than with a fixed-line computer.

Those who read news on a mobile phone are more concerned about the cost of accessing news (32%) than those who read news on a computer. Tablet users are generally less concerned (22%) as the majority of usage remains via Wifi-only devices that do not carry an extra tariff – and tablet owners tend to be from higher income groups.

A quarter of mobile phone users say they rarely finish reading a news article on these devices. In contrast, only 9% of tablet users say they rarely finish articles – lending weight to the view that these devices are better for news consumption. Equally striking is the perception, from almost 40% of tablet users, that viewing news is a better experience on a tablet than via a PC. This may reflect the bigger and better quality screen, but also the optimised experiences that many news providers have created through apps that are usually designed with less clutter than a normal news website.

Sources of news online

Despite the range of choices available online, it is striking that the number of sources accessed is still relatively modest for most people. Our survey shows that on a computer 81% used three or fewer sources of news each week, with only 14% using more than four sources. Mobile users seem slightly less adventurous, with 87% using fewer than three sources, but users of tablets were significantly less likely to use only one source (21%) and a quarter used more than four sources each week.

Overall, however, it seems that it is the interest in news rather than the device that has the biggest impact on the number of sources used. Looking at our news segmentation, we can see the news absorbed tend to use far more sources of news than the other two groups – over a third are using more than four sources every week.

We were not able to ask this question outside the UK this year, but it would be interesting in subsequent years to see if this pattern is different in the United States or France where we know there is higher consumption of blogs, portals, and new internet news players.