Mobile devices are becoming the primary means for staying up to date on breaking news and industry content. Mobile offers an always-on-hand means to stay in touch with what's going on. This is important to the savvy entrepreneur: Trouble or breakthroughs can have ripple effects in the economy and provide business or service opportunities.
There are, however, a lot of different apps available. Some favor using RSS programs like Feedly to curate content into a single spot. Others prefer Google News, Squid or Paper.li for the customization options.
So which mobile apps work best? Below, 14 members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) share their favorite ones:
1. Apple News
"I'm a big fan of Apple News. There is loads of content available, it allows me to narrow the scope of what I am interested in reading about, and it gives me the option to save articles I don't have time to read at that very moment." – Colbey Pfund, LFNT Distribution
2. The Economist Espresso
"I don't believe in using just one source for my news, but if I had to choose, it'd be The Economist Espresso app. Espresso delivers a morning news briefing that summarizes the most important global news. I also use Nuzzel to connect with news shared by my network on Twitter to get a broader view of what's happening in my industry and the world." – Justin Blanchard, ServerMania Inc.
3. Facebook feed
"It's fascinating how useful your Facebook news feed may become if you spend time teaching the algorithm what matters to you. I've spent hours flagging pictures of cats and memes as something I'm not interested in seeing. And by building up the right circle of friends, you are also telling algorithms what type of news you are interested in the most, which helps make it a useful source of information." – Artur Kiulian, Colab
4. Feedly
"I love the way Feedly delivers customized news and stories I'm interested in. It saves me so much time scrolling through various news sites and regularly refreshes to give me the most current information." – Angela Ruth, Calendar
5. Google News & Weather
"Google has a mobile app that makes finding the latest news easy. My favorite part is that I can browse global and local news all from the same app. It also has an even more personalized option called Just for You that recommends articles you may be interested in based on your previous interactions with the app." – Jared Atchison, WPForms
6. Inoreader
"I understand that there's some irony in replacing newspapers with a technology that seems almost as old-fashioned these days, but RSS feeds are still the best way to collect content from sources I trust. There are many RSS feed readers to choose from, but Inoreader is the one that offers the right mix of features for my news reading." – Vik Patel, Future Hosting
7. NPR News
"Unfortunately, most days I don't have time to sit and read articles. The NPR News app allows me to just press play and hear all of the latest news. I use it every morning while I'm getting ready, drinking coffee and eating my breakfast. It keeps me up to date on the most important issues without the overdramatization that other news organizations tend to do." – Zev Herman, Superior Lighting
8. Paper.li
"Paper.li is a great way to aggregate content from trusted sources. It allows you to organize the content you want to see regularly and delivers it to you, saving tons of time. It also allows you to curate content from trusted sources in addition to customized filters from sources like Twitter and the Associated Press." – Dan Golden, BFO (Be Found Online)
9. Reddit
"What I like about Reddit is that you can find the subreddits that are most interesting and relevant to your industry. For example, since I'm involved in the financial industry, I like to find the latest stories in that sector. Compared to most news sites, Reddit is also interactive, making it a good place for networking and finding potential clients." – Shawn Porat, Scorely
10. SmartNews
"SmartNews gives you a quick overview of news, and you can focus on the categories of stories that you're most interested in. It's fast, with almost no loading time, and you can download items to read offline. I find it's the easiest app for scrolling through headlines and deciding what I want to read." – Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting
11. Squid
"Just like other news apps, Squid allows me to filter by the topics I'm interested in. More often than not, articles contain a mix of relevant and irrelevant information. Squid allows me to annotate articles before I share them so that the person on the receiving end knows exactly what part of the article caught my attention and I would like them to focus on." – Duran Inci, Optimum7
12. Traditional media
"Physical newspapers may be a thing of the past, but traditional news sources never will be. I stay up to date through the apps offered by traditional news outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, ESPN and local newspapers, as they ultimately offer the best and most accurate sources of information." – Adam Mendler, Custom Tobacco
13. Twitter
"Twitter may have its faults, but it is by far the best news source on the planet. No matter when or where something happens, it will be on Twitter within seconds. If there is something going on in my area and I'm not sure what it is, I immediately go to Twitter search and look it up. No matter the topic, you can find people that cover the news that interests you as well." – Scott Kacmarski, Reps Direct
14. Yahoo
"Yahoo is a great mobile app for staying up to date on the news. It covers a wide variety of topics and usually has updates on breaking stories in real time." – Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance