Can mobile print media and news sites satisfy the need for speed?

November 2014 research by The Search Agency found that the leading US print news and media companies (which includes more than just newspapers) had embraced mobile sites, but also pointed to issues that the industry needs to address. The study looked at the top 50 print and news media websites ranked by Experian Marketing Services based on mobile traffic.

Among print news and media sites studied, 40 per cent served dedicated mobile versions, 30 per cent used responsive web design (RWD)—despite Google’s push for this format—and 22 per cent served dynamic mobile sites.

While the fact that just eight per cent served desktop versions of their sites was great news, speed remained an issue across formats. None of the print news and media sites studied were able to meet Google’s recommendation for a five-second load time. In fact, average load times for each format weren’t even close to this threshold: 67.4 seconds for dedicated mobile, 99.8 seconds for RWD, 110.3 seconds for dynamic mobile and (less surprisingly) 162.0 seconds for desktop. Formatted properly for mobile or not, long load times lead to a poor user experience.

Read the rest of this story at eMarketer.

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