However, targeting a mobile audience could have big returns. Says Spier, “Our mobile audience is much more loyal, they engage much more deeply with us, than our NPR.org audience.” He reports that both the iPhone and the Android apps are generating approximately six times more page views per visitor than visitors logging on to NPR.org from a computer. Furthermore, he reports that mobile users engage more continually and for longer than users on NPR.org. Explains Spier, “We also know that it’s a much more 24/7 audience. We see our traffic hold up 18 hours a day [from users on apps or the mobile web], whereas on NPR.org it’s always been a workday, workweek phenomenon. […] We’re seeing an average session time among people using the iPhone news app currently at about nine to ten minutes a session right now, which is substantially longer than NPR.org.”

via mobileactive.org

Data backs the hunch and my own experience that NPR needs to maximize its portability — because that’s its brand: portable news. Radio was the ultimate but now they have to deliver it on the device in our pockets.