Ongo Survey Finds Americans Trust News on Social Sites Significantly Less than Newspaper Sites with Editorial Curation

CUPERTINO, Calif., Sept. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Ongo, a personal news service that redefines news aggregation online, today released survey results examining American online news preferences.  In conjunction with the results, Ongo unveiled new functionality through a new set of section pages showcasing the breadth of content highlighted by Ongo's team of professional editors.  The editorial team curates news from Ongo's leading content providers across all eight section pages—ranging from US to World to Sports.

Ongo surveyed 522 Americans about their opinions on leading news sources, amounts of news online and trust placed in various news sources, revealing:

Increasing amount of news online

• 72.7 percent of Americans feel that over the past year, the amount of daily news and data online has increased.    
  • 31.7 percent of Americans feel it has increased by 20 percent and 25.2 percent feel it has jumped 50 percent.  27.3 percent feel the amount of news has stayed about the same.

Leading sources of online news

• Traditional sources of news—newspapers—are still the most-turned to sources of news.
• Americans most often turn to newspaper websites (73.5 percent of respondents) and news aggregator sites, such as Yahoo! or Google News (64.4 percent) for their news.  
• Social sites do not fare as well as newspaper or aggregation sites with 31.1 percent of Americans finding news on Facebook and 11.2 percent turning to Twitter.
• News via email is an important source as 35.4 percent of respondents use email news alerts and 27.9 percent look to email newsletters to stay informed.
• 5.8 percent of respondents look to personalized news websites for news.

Most Trusted News Sources

• Americans most often turn to newspaper web sites because they are viewed as the most trusted sources to gain visibility into the news and information of the day.  Social sites fare poorly as trusted sources.
  • 58.3 percent of respondents find newspaper web sites with professional editors curating the news as the most trusted news source.
  • 22.6 percent most trust professional editors from sites like Google News or Yahoo! News.
  • Facebook is not highly trusted, with 2.8 percent citing friends on Facebook as their most trusted source.  Twitter ranks even lower, with 0.2 percent finding news from people followed on Twitter as most trustworthy.

Benefits of News Curation

• Newspapers with professional editors working with—or curating—news is valued by respondents as it saves them time, surfaces vital news and makes getting important news easier.
• 66.5 percent see professional editors curating news as beneficial as they facilitate an easier way to get the most important news and information.
• More than half, 54.6 percent, note that editors surface the most important, must-read news stories.
• 45.8 percent feel having professional editors curate news saves them time in reading the news.

"Good news for editors—they should take heart in that Americans highly value their role in curating the news—and find news curated by editors as most trustworthy," said Alex Kazim, Ongo Inc.'s founder and chief executive officer. "For this reason, Ongo places significant importance on news meta-curation—professional editors curating the top news from leading newspapers.  This ensures the best of the best of the day's stories are always front and center while the most intriguing, must-read stories are also highlighted so readers never miss them."

Coinciding with the survey is Ongo's new functionality, showcasing Ongo's breadth of content and experienced editorial team. The new layout design highlights curated section pages for US, World, Business, Science & Technology, Sports, Arts & Entertainment and Life, in addition to Opinion that highlights leading voices each day.  In each section, Ongo has layered in news modules, making it easy to digest the top news of the day while enjoying stories likely missed otherwise.

The Ongo standard subscription package is $5.99 a month and provides more than 800 stories to subscribers every day. The package includes comprehensive coverage from the Associated Press; a wide selection of stories from Reuters; all original Washington Post content from The Washington Post print edition; all content from USA TODAY; New York Times Picks, a selection of top stories from The New York Times; and selected content from the Financial Times.  

For further survey details, please contact Ongo at [email protected].

Resources

View an Ongo overview video: www.ongo.com/c/how-ongo-works
Meet Ongo's team of editors: http://www.ongo.com/p/editors
Visit Ongo's Press Room: http://ongo.com/press-room.php
Follow us on Twitter at @OngoNews

About Ongo

Ongo is a personal news service that redefines how digital news from trusted sources is read, organized and shared. A broad selection of the world's leading news titles and Ongo's editorial team provide avid news consumers with a more complete way to get the news that matters most. Ongo, based in Cupertino, Calif., received a $12 million initial round of financing in September 2010 from Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) and The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). The Ongo service launched on Jan. 25, 2011, and is available at www.ongo.com.

Ongo is a trademark of Ongo Inc., and other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Ongo