AP Mobile one year on: 55 million local stories have been read

Posted by Emma Heald on May 25, 2009 at 9:37 AM

The Associated Press announced that a year after the launch of AP Mobile, more than 55 million local stories have been read on the platform. From 107 member papers at the time of launch, the number of local sources distributing news has now risen to more than 1000. AP Mobile was launched in 2008 as the first product released by AP's Digital Cooperative, and organises news by postal code, so as to provide truly local news.

"Delivering more than 55 million local stories demonstrates that this is the year of mobile for news consumers. The AP Mobile readership places a high value on news that is increasingly local and relevant to their communities," said Jeff Litvack, AP's mobile and emerging products general manager. "Mobile is increasingly personal. Now, more than ever, consumers want access to news and information that affects their lives, and AP Mobile is here to fill this gap."

63% of AP Mobile users are aged 18-34, and 53% earn more than $75,000, according to a press release. Men represent 78% of traffic to all subject areas, and 82% of sports. On average, users spend 17 minutes per month interacting with AP mobile applications and www.apnews.com. Over half of news stories accessed fall in the content category of Top Stories, followed by Local News with 21%. The AP has created specific applications for iPhone and Blackberry, and users of both average 7 pages views per visit.

The AP's iPhone app is free for users, relying on ads sold by member papers and hired agencies, but Blackberry owners must pay to download their application. In an interview in April, AP director of strategic planning Jim Kennedy described AP's mobile activity as "really a model for the kind of activity we want to do in the future, where as an industry we aggregate our content and put it where the users are, and build a model around it."

The AP's mobile focus indeed seems an effort to target readers more directly. In line with this, the organisation recently announced plans to create new search landing pages of aggregated content based around news stories and topics, in an attempt to offer readers the most authoritative local sources for US news. The cooperative also intends to put in place new mechanisms which will allow it to track its content more effectively and defend it from misappropriation.

Source: AP press release