Read all about it! How mobile phone web access elevates online news consumption

Abstract

News reading has shifted away from printed newspapers towards the online environment. Some of the most appreciated hardware for reading online news nowadays are the mobile devices, especially smartphones. The purpose of this research is to test the coherence and the trustability of the relation between mobile phone empowered web access and the custom of reading news(papers) online. The results of a bivariate linear regression analysis (α = 0.05) based on Eurostat data for 30 countries spanning over an interval between 2013 and 2018 (180 observations) point out to a positive relationship, yet only of moderate effect (Multiple R = 0.63; R2 = 0.40). The Discussions section investigates possible causes of this effect and, based on the findings, provides pieces of advice that newsroom managers could employ in the editorial strategy in order to better engage with their audiences