Does Your Newsroom Need a Mobile App? -A Study On 15 Publishers

Published on:

27 May 2025, 7:05 am

Updated on:

27 May 2025, 7:05 am

5 min read

Many publishers are asking us whether a dedicated mobile app is essential to their growth strategy.

Quintype set out to answer that question with data. We analysed reader behaviour across multiple publishers, regional, national, and niche, comparing mobile apps, mobile web, and desktop usage.

Our goal is to understand not just where traffic comes from, but where meaningful engagement truly occurs and how it relates to loyalty, revenue and return visitors.

If your newsroom is considering whether to invest in a mobile application, this report will give you the clarity to make that decision with confidence.

The Urge to Understand Reader Behaviour

At Quintype, we help publishers grow their traffic and page views, but numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. We wanted to understand where readers spend the most time and what drives genuine engagement. The goal is to help our clients craft more innovative strategies that return readers.

We conducted a client data study to identify where readers spend more time, engage more deeply, and return for additional content. We gathered data across the web and mobile apps over the last 30 days using Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Firebase.

We considered the following metrics:

The Study

In a world where audiences scroll, swipe, and consume news on the go, mobile apps have become more than just a “nice-to-have”; they are often seen as a marker of digital maturity.

Our goal of this study was to understand how key metrics like page views, session time, and engagement rate correlate with each other, and more importantly, where user stickiness is highest. We analysed 30 days of engagement data across multiple publishers.

Metric	Definition	How to Use It
Avg. Session Time	The average time users spend in a single session	Compare App vs. Web — shows which platform retains users longer
Avg. Engagement Time per User	Time users actively engage (foreground usage) — often more accurate than session time	Validate session time; reflects real attention, not just app open duration
DAU/MAU (User Stickiness)	% of monthly users who return daily — measures loyalty and habit	Strong indicator of user retention and habitual usage

Publisher Codes	Classification
P1, P2, P3, P4, P8, P10, P11, P12, P15	Regional Publisher
P6, P9	National Publisher
P5, P7, P13, P14	Niche Publisher

In the next step, we segmented the data by publisher type to identify whether there are distinct patterns in reader behavior across different categories. This helped us explore whether regional, niche, and national publishers see varied engagement trends in mobile app and desktop.

Number of pageviews in mobile app Vs desktop

Pageviews are Higher on Desktop

We observed that page views were consistently higher on desktop compared to mobile app. This trend held true across all publishers regardless of niche, region, or language.

It suggests that content discovery is stronger on desktop, with more users landing on news stories through desktop platforms than on mobile app. what can be the reason?

Habitual browsing behavior

Desktop users might be visiting in high volume due to habitual browsing (e.g., opening multiple news tabs). The reach of desktop is higher compared to the reach on mobile app.

Search-engine bias

Desktop results still surface more news links above the fold, driving higher click-through rates.

Multi-tab habits

Desktop users hop between stories, inflating page-view counts without necessarily boosting time.

User stickiness on mobile app Vs Desktop

Monthly Active Users are Higher on Mobile App

Across almost every publisher we analysed, mobile app MAUs were consistently higher than desktop MAUs.

There are no surprises here.

Readers are discovering stories on their phones, often through social media, push notifications, or Google Discover.

The graph shows that, there is a higher user stickiness across mobile app for most of the publishers compared to desktop. This can be due to the following reasons

Habit formation happens on mobile apps

Higher user stickiness (DAU/MAU) on mobile app means users are more likely to return daily on their phones than on desktops. This points to mobile app as the platform where news becomes part of the reader’s daily routine.

Reader loyalty is higher on mobile app

Stickiness metrics (DAU/MAU) show that app users return more frequently. The more time spent is because users are engaged not just once, but repeatedly.

Average engagement time of user on Mobile App Vs Desktop

Engagement Time is Higher on Mobile App

When we looked at how long users stayed on the site, a new picture emerged. In many cases, mobile app users had nearly 1.5x to 2x the engagement time compared to desktop users.

This is because mobile app users have fewer distraction compared to desktop. The other reasons can be

App users are more intentional

Mobile app users don’t land on content by accident. They have downloaded the app, opened it, and chosen to engage. That level of intent naturally leads to longer, more focused sessions.

Push notifications drive timely reads

Apps can proactively bring users in with push alerts often during moments when they are ready to engage. This leads to deeper, more frequent interactions compared to web visits initiated passively through search or social.

Mobile App UX is built for scrolling

Mobile app interfaces are often more streamlined, with smoother scrolls, fewer distractions, and optimized layouts making it easier for users to stay longer and keep reading.

Do Publisher Categories Influence Reader Behavior?

Across categories, mobile app consistently outperforms desktop in engagement time especially for regional and national publishers. Desktop may attract more users, mobile app fosters deeper, more sustained interaction.

So what we can suggest?

Mobile apps are a smart bet for regional and national publishers

While mobile app consistently drives higher engagement for regional and national publishers, the trend is less predictable for niche ones. For regional publishers especially, investing in a mobile app is not just a tech choice, it’s a strategic move to capture loyal, high-attention audiences.

What if you rely on subscriptions?

Strongly consider investing in a mobile app and its ideal for subscriber-only content.

Mobile app users are more likely to stay, return, and pay. A well-designed app can become your subscriber’s daily reading routine, reducing churn.

What if your business is Ad-Heavy?

A mobile app is valuable, but UX matters. Higher engagement time on mobile app means more ad view-ability, especially in scroll-heavy app formats.

However, you will need to manage ad clutter carefully to avoid driving users away. Apps can improve ad impressions per session, but only if the experience is clean and non-intrusive.

If you are seeing high traffic but low engagement

Use a mobile app to convert casual traffic into quality time. Many publishers have strong desktop reach but low engagement time.
If you are attracting a lot of users but struggling with bounce rates or shallow engagement, a mobile app could help convert that reach into retention.

The Final Scroll

While desktop brings reach, mobile apps deliver real attention. For publishers aiming to grow loyal audiences whether through subscriptions, ads, or habitual reading apps consistently show stronger engagement.

Even niche platforms can benefit, provided the experience is intuitive and focused. If you are considering the next step in your digital growth, now’s a good time to explore how a well-crafted mobile app could fit into your long-term strategy.