News apps category became one of the most popular from the early beginningof mobile applications. This is a part of our everyday life and many people starttheir day accompanied with coffee and mobile news.

There are more than 40.000 apps in the News category in both AppStore andGoogle Play, so competition is rather tough.

At the same time, according to Flurry analytics, News category is among thosewhere users are extremely loyal (use more than 5 times a week, retention rateis over 50%).

So, users are already loyal, but publishers need to push loyalty even higher.

But how?

The main feature which media apps use now to grow loyalty is news feedpersonalization.

This is a short research of the most trending news applications and theirapproaches to trimming newsfeed individually for their users.

The newsfeed personalization is achieved in 2 ways:

User­driven. User selects interested topics and sources including tags andsub­topics

Machine­driven. App algorithm monitors user’s preferences such as newsviews, likes/dislikes and social preferences. After collecting this infoapplication adjusts newsfeed and eliminates uninteresting items.

So, let’s look at examples of customization tools.

1. Set your interestsApps like StumpleUpon, Pulse and Zite don’t have the generic newsfeed at all ­ you need to chooseyour preferences first.

StumpleUpon Pulse Pulse

2. Link your social networks and RSS

….and let the app do the rest for you. Flipboard is the most well­known example for adding social newsto the newsfeed along with picking topics:

In Feedly we also see this approach: the app offers user choose from topics or sync with GoogleReader:

Zite application gets user’s information from the social networks and also picking topics:

3. Let the algorithm will learn your preferences

Vu application learns what user likes through tags and simple Yes/No answers:

and also through topic selection and indicating emotions:

4. Mix of toolsTopics, subtopics and newssource choose combined with like/dislike buttons.News360 application offers a wide range of customization options. First, user has a chance to selectthe topics. Later they can refine this list:

As well as create news section and like or dislike the article:

Conclusions

News apps category is one of the most popular in marketplace, the competition is tough. Mostapps have a rather loyal audience already, but publishers push it even further;

At the moment the most effective way to keep users attention in the news app is newsfeedcustomisation. Currently there two major trends in newsfeed personalization;

Users­driven approach gives an opportunity to each user to select their own share of topics andnews sources;

Machine­driven approach implies using an algorithm that suggest the most relevant news basedon user’s profiles in social networks, RSS, tags, votes and even emotions;

Some apps use a mix of these tools to engage and retain users for longer time;

None of these tools is a silver bullet for news apps, so publishers continue to search. As thebattle on news apps market continues, we are sure that in a little while some new exciting userretention techniques will come up.

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