Almost half of UK print media publications don’t have a mobile responsive website
Of the most popular print media publications in the United Kingdom, 45 per cent do not have a digital site that displays effectively on handheld devices, according to new research.
The data, from the second annual Vibrant Media Mobile Advertising Readiness Survey (VMMARS), which looks at how prepared the UK’s top print media publications are to monetise mobile traffic to their digital sites, found that just one in five of the UK’s largest print media publications launched a new site that renders effectively on mobile screens in the past year, despite the £2.26 billion expected to be spent on mobile advertising in 2014 – a 90 per cent increase from 2013.
Although consumers can now access content from 55 per cent of the UK’s largest print media titles on their mobile phones – an improvement from 2013 when 68 per cent of these publishers did not have a site that displayed effectively on mobiles – the industry is still proving slow to adapt.
Over the last year, general monthly magazines – covering primarily the men’s sectors and specialist interests such as gadgets and tech – have adopted mobile sites most quickly of all the categories. A quarter of these titles created a new mobile optimised digital site within the last year.
The women’s weekly magazines are proving the slowest to move to mobile. Starting from the low base of just 22.4 per cent of titles in 2013 having a site that renders effectively for mobile, just 16.9 per cent of women’s weekly titles adopted a new mobile site in the last year.
The study also found that eight out of ten daily news media titles are now mobile optimised, with one in four launching a new mobile site in the last year.