The news is at hand.
POTTSTOWN PA – We hope this type looks big enough.
Slightly more than one in four American adults now read news on their cell phones, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center, announced Monday (March 1, 2010).
Here at The Post, that’s caused some concern about eyestrain among the thousands of people who read our words every month. The typical cell phone screen is, after all, a tiny 1-3/4 inches square. But fear not: a solution’s already in place.
Because The Sanatoga Post, The Limerick Post and The Pottstown Post all use the WordPress platform for presenting local news of the day, specialized easier-to-read versions of their content are automatically delivered by WordPress to cell phone screens. The platform itself detects whether you’re reading this on a cell phone, laptop, or desktop screen, and provides the appropriate view.
The Pew survey released Monday indicates 26 percent of Americans now get their news on their phones. Their primary interest: what’s the weather like. Seventy-two percent of cell phone news hounds check weather reports first, and current events second, the study shows.
Phone newsies are younger too, Pew said; 43 percent of those who identified themselves as “mobile news consumers” were age 50 or younger, compared to only 15 percent who admitted to be older than 50.
And 46 percent reported they may rely on up to six different types of media sources on any given day. So those of you who 1) read The Post on a screen in the morning, then 2) page through The (Pottstown PA) Mercury over breakfast, 3) listen to KYW Newsradio on the way to work, 4) get a news-laden alert via e-mail at the office, 5) check the weather on cell before heading home, and 6) end the day in front of a televised local news program during dinner …
Well, you’re not alone.
Photo from Clipart.com
Sign up to get The Sanatoga Post delivered free daily by e-mail. Share this article.
See our galleries for photos that appear in The Post. Got news for us? E-mail The Post.
Reading news from my cell is actually the only way I receive it…unless I get it from my personal weatherman, my grandfather lol
I hold tightly to my lo-fi opposite of smart phone. Sadly, I wonder when I will go from rebel to behind the curve… Am I there already?
http://olderbrothersadvice.wordpress.com/
I only read my news from my cellphone!
jonathanlilley.wordpress.com
I don’t even remember how I got news before I had a smartphone.
If the only way I could get the news was on my cell phone, then I would never get news at all. We have made the cell phone companies rich with the over use of the cell phone. Now paying high rates for over-the-limit uses have become big business. It costs more to surf the web on a phone than to watch the news on television. This new way of communication is out of my league.
Depending on what sort of news I want to access from my Blackberry, then I will. Then again, I still like picking up the newspaper and being able to read it that way
Cheers,
Tasha
I’m part of the 74%. While I may get plenty of news online (via laptop), I haven’t given up other news delivery methods entirely. And don’t want to be glued to my cell phone nonstop, especially for internet access.
Necessary communications? Sure. Read news? Probably not. And I may even want an actual newspaper in my hands, complete with ink stains. Go figure.
Since I’m around computers at work and at home, it’s easier (and cheaper) for me just to pull it up on one of the computers.
I still buy a newspaper for the weekly sales though–full-sized Fry’s Electronics ads just don’t look right on a screen.
Unfortunately, the cell phone in a deadly combination with Twitter’s text speak will be the death of language.
English will lose its ability to articulate complex concepts. And as a result, those complex concepts will disappear into the ether.
all of my news comes from my iphone or from my netbook. i dont even have cable or satalite television anymore because it is outdated, no need for it. you can download or read anything you need online, blogs or network pages.
I don’t really read any news from my cell.
Though I don’t order any magazines either.
I just read all the news from web on my MAC. I have an Nokia 2330 as a phone and it’s screen is way too small to read news. But my 13″ computer screen is better.
My phone is not smart. I’ve never liked holding newspapers (or touching them), so before the era of online newspapers, I watched the local news on TV and listened to the radio.
I still watch the local news and listen to NPR (depending on if I’m the driver or passenger in a car), but read a lot news online. The perception of restriction is much less, in that if I don’t want to read about XYZ items, I don’t have to. Changing web sites yields more options than changing channels on the TV.
Interesting post. I’m not sure where I fall, because I didn’t own a cell phone until this past summer and I only use it about once a month, when I realize, “oh, I could reach my husband with my cell phone, couldn’t I?”. And no, I’m not 108.