The majority of tablet news users, 65%, mostly rely on only one to three sources or apps. This corresponds closely to the number of sources people say they turn to in other platforms. In separate Pew Research Center surveys from 2010, for instance, 21% of internet users who got news online, said they turned to just one news website online and another 57% turned to two to five sites.[1] And for local news information, 64% of local news consumers said they turned to 3 to 5 sources regularly.[2]
Of those sources most often visited, CNN beats out other news sites as the most frequently visited news source; 25% named CNN as a source they turn to most often. [Note: Respondents could name up to three sources.] The next popular sites are the New York Times (16%) and Fox News (12%). These sites are also continuously among the most popular news websites more generally, usually in the same order of CNN, The New York Times and then Fox News, according to the major analytics companies.
In addition to the New York Times, other newspaper websites are popular as well: with USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post rounding out the top newspaper websites visited. These three sites also tend to rank within the top 10-15 news websites overall.
The big nationally known outlets are also named most frequently as new sources for news on the tablet. Among the one-third of respondents who reported turning to new sources, USA Today-a fully free app-CNN and The New York Times topped the list.
Tablet news organizers like Flipboard and Pulse, accounted for 9% of new sources named.
[1] "Understanding the Participatory News Consumer," Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, March 1, 2010, https://legacy.pewresearch.org/journalism/analysis_report/understanding_participatory_news_consumer.
[2] "How People Learn About Their Local Community," Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, September 26, 2011, https://legacy.pewresearch.org/journalism/analysis_report/local_news.
