( CNN ) -- On mobile devices , social media may be hot , but news still captures people 's attention . And the news business , troubled though it has been , is all about attention . But can mobile news apps help save news about your community ? In just a couple of years , mobile devices are likely to be the most common way that people in the United States access the Internet . Meanwhile , more and more newspapers and other traditional news outlets , especially those that provide local or regional news , are likely to keep getting smaller or even fold . New research from Localytics shows that mobile users spend roughly the same amount of time with news apps as they do with Twitter 's mobile app , about 115 minutes per month . Many of my news media colleagues get excited when they hear statistics like that . They 're hoping news apps might help save the ad-supported news business , perhaps even help keep traditional print newspapers and broadcast news operations afloat . That 's because advertisers want eyeballs . When people spend more time in apps , those apps become more attractive vehicles for advertising . Localytics ' data implies that smartphone and tablet apps for news could indeed offer an advantage to mobile advertisers . People spend just two-thirds as much time using mobile apps for entertainment , health and fitness , sports and music . While game apps are popular , on average , mobile users spend less than half as much time using game apps as news apps . But not so fast : News organizations would n't necessarily be getting all , or even most , of the ad dollars from news apps . That 's because some of the most popular news apps do n't come directly from print or broadcast news brands . For example , Flipboard is a very popular news aggregator app . Similarly , OnSwipe repackages a publisher 's content to make it beautiful and easy to use on mobile Web browsers ( not apps ) . The companies that provide these tools determine which ads get displayed there . Publishers who distribute their content through such third-party mobile news tools earn a cut of the resulting ad revenue , but it 's less money than they 've been accustomed to making by selling their own ads . Pulse and Google Currents ( two other popular news aggregator apps ) do n't yet run ads but are likely to start selling ads soon , according to TechCrunch and Forbes . Most major news brands do offer their own smartphone or tablet apps , but these often are costly to develop and maintain , which can make them a dicey business proposition . Furthermore most news brands that offer their own mobile apps do n't sell their own in-app ads ; they serve ads from revenue-sharing mobile ad networks . These network ads tend to be fairly generic and lacking in geographic relevance . That has been a missed opportunity , because location is especially important to mobile users , and because the vast majority of news outlets are local . Last year , CNN took a different approach by purchasing Zite , a popular news aggregator tablet app . So far Zite does n't display ads , but it is experimenting with revenue models and eventually it may help directly support the news organization . That strategy might eventually pay off for a big global news organization like CNN , but probably not so much for a struggling no-longer-daily newspaper in a city like New Orleans . GigaOm expects huge growth in the mobile advertising market , spurred by great improvements in meeting the needs of local advertisers . That 's a development that could indeed help save local news outlets , at least the ones that decide to get serious about mobile . But if a boom in mobile advertising ends up mainly benefiting national and global advertisers , ad networks and news outlets , then more people will keep getting less and less access to local news -- with potentially profound effects on communities . The opinions expressed in this post are solely those of Amy Gahran .
New research shows news apps are competitive with Twitter 's mobile app . Many hope that revenue from these apps might offset losses from print and broadcast news . News apps are costly to make and maintain . They also have a limited audience, which limits their appeal as advertising platforms for publishers.