• by Sara Guaglione , July 30, 2018

Reuters has launched a new app that focuses on “utility” to help business professionals “make better decisions,” according to the media company.

The app focuses on topic-based feeds. Reuters believes it will give business professionals fast and relevant information to help inform their decisions across industries, interests, markets and countries.

The emphasis on this target audience is part of Reuters’ focus on its professional readers.

“We were hearing our content is used in decision-making. So this 'utility' approach is about finding how we could provide them with a more efficient way to get the news they find most valuable," a Reuters spokesperson told Publishers Daily.

Reuters is also looking at user engagement as a metric of success for the app and its content, rather than traditional metrics like clicks, the spokesperson said.

Reuters has thousands of topic feeds available in the app. The feeds can be customized to give users a personalized news service.

“In building the new app, we wanted to make it easier for users to access quality news and data across the thousands of specialist topics we cover,” stated Isaac Showman, managing director of Reuters Consumer.

It also has features like customized alerts, “market watchlists” and analysis of stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities.

The “Editor’s Highlights” feature provides a summary of major stories in each feed. A personalized news bulletin from Reuters TV lets users select their program length. The app can also be accessed offline.

Available on iOS devices, the app will get an Android version in the coming weeks.

Reuters also operates personalized video news app Reuters TV.