Survey: 68% of UK’s biggest publication websites do not have effective mobile display

A survey has found that 68 per cent of the UK’s biggest print publications do not display their websites effectively on mobile and tablet devices.

The worst performing group surveyed by digital advertising company Vibrant Media was the women’s weeklies where less than a quarter – 22.4 per cent – of titles had effective website display.

Some 27 per cent of general monthlies, 30.8 per cent of the general weeklies, 37.5 per cent of women’s weeklies were said to display their websites well on mobile.

Daily news sites were the best performing, with 60 per cent displaying well but Vibrant’s publisher solutions director Fiona Salmon said the other 40 per cent are “missing out on a rapidly growing mobile ad spend from brands”.

“Some of the bigger publications are focusing on content apps,” she said.

“There are benefits to this approach – such as encouraging app users to pay for content – but solely focusing on an app strategy for mobile content distribution can mean that the publisher only effectively serves consumers with devices compatible with their app.”

The survey was undertaken by Vibrant last month using an iPhone and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 to access the 175 sites – all of which were listed in the National Readership Survey top line readership report for January to December 2012.

The sites were assessed by their ability to “render effectively” (display content with sufficient legibility and usability without zooming).

An average of the results from both devices was then calculated to give a mean figure for the percentage of the sites which render effectively on mobile devices in total, and for each category of publication as defined by NRS.