The Register’s mobile share (how many of the total page views come from smartphones) continues to grow, edging towards 50 percent.

The chart, at right, shows the climb of smartphone news consumers. The large jump seen in early 2012 is because analytics were improved in our mobile app allowing us to see all user activity in the app (before that we could only see some of what people viewed during a visit)

A timeline of the mobile share for the month of July over the past few years:

• 2008: 0.10%
• 2009: 6.12%
• 2010: 9.27%
• 2011: 13.98%
• 2012: 40.58%

Tracking the mobile share helps to understand the changing nature of our audience. Gone are the days when people just got news from one medium – be it the newspaper, radio or television.

Today’s population is getting information in all sorts of ways and our job is to deliver news how and where people want the information.

Here’s my presentation on mobile that I gave at the ASNE Conference earlier this year in San Diego.

A description of the panel: ” Learn how to design mobile experiences for maximum impact and how to leverage new or existing tools and technologies efficiently as you enter the mobile space. Panelists will offer advice and examples of how to create mobile products with impact and what newsroom changes are needed to create successful mobile content.”

The Register mobile share continues to grow. The chart at right (click to expand) is one of many that I generate and update monthly to illustrate the past, current and projected mobile audience trends for the Register.

“Mobile share” is a figure I use to explain how much of our content is accessed by people using a mobile device (smartphone or tablet). The number compares total mobile page views to total digital page views (mobile + desktop website).

Notes about the Register’s mobile share:

• OCRegister mobile share crossed the 15% mark for the first time with 15.92% in June 2011.
• The Register crossed the 10% mark in October 2010 and the 5% mark in May 2010.

Just over a year ago I started as the Register’s mobile and social leader. As our mobile audiences continue to grow, I’m now transferring my social role to Kevin Sablan and oversight of user-generated content to another editor. Now, I’ll be focusing on mobile. Here’s the description of my new role, written by OCRegister Editor Ken Brusic.

“Sonya Quick has done a fantastic job helping us move forward with social and mobile strategies and exploring new opportunities to engage with readers via ShareOC. Our mobile audience is growing at such a phenomenal rate – and has such great potential – that Sonya will focus her talents on our mobile site and mobile apps, while continuing to share her insights on social networks and user-generated content. The ShareOC work will migrate to the crowd sourcing team leader once that role is filled.”