BBC's Newsbeat app is its first aimed solely at young adults
BBC Radio 1 is struggling to keep young listeners tuned in. The station's audience has shrunk to its smallest size in over a decade, but the BBC believes it has a strategy: expanding Radio 1 beyond traditional broadcasting. That means embracing YouTube, iPlayer and now, bite-sized mobile apps. The BBC is breaking out Newsbeat into a standalone app for iOS and Android, repackaging many of the stories it currently runs on the web. The design consists of three feeds -- Latest, Popular and Topics -- and individual news reports are shown as cards with large, bold photos. The BBC says it's aiming the app at 16- to 24-year-olds and will be focused on entertainment news, interviews and social trends. While it's true that millennials spend a lot of time on their phones, the broadcaster could have a tough time drawing their attention away from apps like Snapchat.
