More people reading news on smartphones: Pew survey

New York, April 30
Readers are increasingly shifting to their smartphones to access news than their PCs, says a Pew Research Centre survey.

Growth in mobile ad spending has outpaced all other platforms, explaining publishers' determination to tailor their content for the small screen, the study found.

Mobile ad spending rose 78 percent, accounting for 37 percent of all digital ad spending. In a comprehensive study that seeks to capture the state of media, Pew also said the newspaper business continues to decline while TV news remains resilient, USA Today reported.

Newspaper ad revenue fell four percent last year to $19.9 billion -- less than half of what it was a decade ago -- but local TV news revenue grew seven percent to about $20 billion.

The weekday and Sunday circulation of newspapers also fell about three percent from 2013 to 2014, Pew said, citing data from Association for Audited Media.

However, in a consolation for the print media, the survey found that while newspaper circulation is falling, more than half of readers (56 percent) still read newspaper content in print only.

Newspaper publishers have a reason to hold onto their ink barrels as well, with $16.4 billion still spent on print ads. But that's down from $17.3 billion a year ago. Their digital ad revenue totaled $3.5 billion, flat from a year ago.

Five companies -- Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL -- captured 61 percent of domestic digital ad revenue in 2014, it said. Digital ads make up about a quarter of all media advertising spending.

As revenue declines, so does the industry's employment.