Newspaper and a cup of tea, a perfect combo we needed to start the day a few years back. How many of you still remember those days when there was a lesser use of gadgets and nature is what we looked at as the first thing in the morning. Reminiscing those times already gives me nostalgia.

However, times have changed and so do our routine practices. It’s no more a newspaper and a tea combo, instead, it’s a notification center of the newspaper mobile app that serves a daily dose of global and local news.

The newspaper industry is undergoing a significant paradigm shift with people preferring to subscribe to online media rather than print. According to an article on Forbes, 2.63 million subscribers of The Wall Street Journal opted for a digital-only edition out of the total 3.5 million subscribers. The New York Times, on the other hand, reported 6.9 million online subscribers out of the total 7.8 million.

Clearly, the trend has changed, people are shifting to digital, and investors are interested to fund newspaper apps or entrepreneurs who are busy building a newspaper app with innovative and modern-age features.

Newspaper App Development Advantages – Business Outlook

Still looking for reasons why it’s a no-brainer to invest in newspaper app development, then here are some of the top reasons for you.

More active subscribers

The above-mentioned numbers clearly state that more people are inclined towards digital-only subscriptions and by investing in newspaper app development you know who to target from the word go.

Extended reach

With no physical boundaries or geographical barriers, you can target as many new users as you want. Reaching out to existing users is also simple, through push notifications that redirect users to the app or prompted content with just a tap.

Higher engagement rate 

You can engage readers of the app in multiple ways that cannot be done via newspapers or magazines. You can enable users to leave a comment on a piece of particular news, ask for their feedback, run a poll, and others to boost engagement.

Higher conversion rate

Better engagement means converting users via newspaper mobile app becomes simpler and direct which isn’t possible in the case of a physical newspaper.

More revenue

Good conversion rates imply more revenue. Additionally, there are multiple revenue generation ways like sponsored news, banner advertising, text promotions, etc that can be included in the newspaper app development.

Newspaper App Development Monetization Schemes

One of the many reasons to build a mobile app is to increase revenue. Similar is the case with building a newspaper app. At the end of it all, a business owner intends to make profits. Addressing the same, we have listed down a few ways you can earn from a newspaper app.

Advertisements

Unlike physical newspapers, the advertisement model in a newspaper mobile app is a bit different and a better rewarding one too. You can play with dynamic ads that change in real-time. This enables you to invite more advertisers for the same ad placement. Ads rotate according to the assigned time intervals. Then, there are splash ads, static banner placements, text ad promotions, in-post ads, etc. that can help you generate additional revenue.

Premium subscriptions

While the free version of the app includes third-party ads, the premium edition of the app can eliminate ads completely. You can introduce premium subscriptions for a better and more intuitive user experience.

E-commerce integration

Along with news, integrating an e-commerce store into your newspaper app will only attract profits. Users coming to the app to read the news will interact more, stay on the app for longer durations, and there is a high probability that they will buy more too.

Sponsored posts/news

Aside from traditional banner advertising, you can do sponsored posts or articles for brands, showcasing their products exclusively. This will not only help users to understand the brand’s products or services better, in a descriptive fashion but also aid you in earning additional revenue.

User donations

This only works when you have a loyal reader base. If you offer quality services and have a loyal userbase, then you can ask them for financial support without giving a second thought.

Don’t Build a Newspaper App Without These Must-Have Features

An app is built in phases, while some features can be appended at a later stage, there are certainly some of them that your app can’t survive without. Here are the must-have features that should be considered when building a newspaper app.

User profiles

User profile helps you to offer personalized content while users can manage the data and preferences they save during the course of time they stay on the app.

One-tap login

Quick login is a mandate nowadays. You don’t want users to abandon the app due to long and unnecessary forms. Keep social logins along with email login.

Explore news categories

One of the basic features of the newspaper app is an exploring section where users can binge on different kinds of news like sports, entertainment, politics, etc.

Preferred topics

This gives the user the power to select topics, news of which will be displayed on their feed as soon as they open the app. This helps in increasing engagement.

Real-time news updates

While users are on the app, there should be a ticker of real-time news updates for better knowledge and content display.

Read later option

One of the crucial aspects of newspaper app development is ‘Read Later’. Not many apps offer this feature but it’s highly desirable to keep users engaged.

Smart filter

Different filter options enable users to be in control of the app. It adds value to their lives. Focus on including filters like “Breaking News”, “Trending”, Most Popular”, and others.

Search

A simple search bar is often ignored or forgotten in the newspaper app, but it helps the users to directly input topics, news they are looking for.

Social media integration

People have a tendency to share content they like with their friends, family, and dear ones. This feature empowers them to do exactly that.

Push notifications

Push notifications act as a catalyst in user engagement, not only do they remind users about your service but also notify them about the latest happenings around the world.

Offline mode

This feature helps users to stay updated with the world trends despite internet connectivity concerns, again a highly desirable feature but not all newspaper apps offer.

Favorites

This helps users to save the news articles they like or would like to refer to again for information in the future. It can quickly land them in the right place containing just the right set of info.

Comment & Like

This is an engagement tool to let users express their interests, and pour out their thoughts on a particular topic/news/celebrity/company, etc.

Artificial intelligence

We’ve included this in the must-have list because your app needs to be smart in analyzing and showing content that matters to the end-users. With the help of AI, you can design a newspaper app that learns through user interactions, preferences, and usage habits. Insights from the same can be used to provide personalized content and news to the users.

Advanced Features to Incorporate in Newspaper App Development

There is no upper limit to which an app can be incorporated with features. You need to plan in such a way that it neither gets overloaded nor falls short of features. New features can always be added at a later stage based on the user feedback, advancement of business, and market demands. Though we have covered a few important and advanced features that can give you an edge in the newspaper industry over other prevailing players.

App customization

By including a feature like this you add value to the lives of users. App customization can be extended to the app’s background color, text color, font size, readability mode, dark mode, etc.

Live streaming

You can add an option of live streaming of news channels (TV or radio or both) – making it an interactive experience. This can always be an additional option as not all users like to watch, some still prefer reading.

Video integration

Integrating your newspaper app with past recorded videos of talk shows, political debates, interviews, etc can further help you stand out from the rest of the apps in the market.

Audio news experience

There are users who like to listen to the news so enabling the audio feature for the text-based news can be an interactive fit for the users of that category.

Virtual reality

We usually talk about virtual reality for games, online shows, concerts, etc but including this technology in newspaper app development can be a gamechanger.

Newspaper App Development Cost – What to Consider?

Developing a mobile app is not a one-man show. It involves teams from different departments, professionals, who work based on their skills, qualifications, and experience. Like in this case of newspaper app development, there would be a need for a project manager, UI/UX designers, back-end developers, native or cross-platform mobile app developers, quality analysts, and business analysts.

Aside from the development team, you’d require an online marketing team to help you reach the right set of audiences, increase traffic to your app, increase visibility, and attract new users.

The cost of building a newspaper app with a limited set of features (you can say the must-haves) varies from $12,000 to $15,000.

With advanced features like AI integration, VR, live streaming, and others, the cost for newspaper app development can go to up to $20,000 which is totally dependent on you as to what and how many features you want to include in the app.

Including a marketing team in the process will add another $1000 a month.

Discuss Requirements 

Newspaper app development is a step-by-step process. Depending on the features you want, the final cost of development can be altered.

The above-mentioned figures are just to give you an idea. The exact quotation for newspaper app development can only be drafted once we speak with you or learn about your business requirements.

Feel free to get in touch with one of our associates for a discussion. It’s free and insightful. So why miss? Leave your details in the contact form and we’ll contact you within 24 business hours.