It’s no surprise to anyone reading this that mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, are skyrocketing in popularity and usage. But it’s still shocking to see some news sites that aren’t fully optimized for the mobile experience.

I’m guessing some organizations aren’t putting as much stock in it due to resources and actually having people in house who can ensure products work on multiple platforms. But perhaps some organizations just don’t understand the growth in users adopting tablets and smartphones to get the news.

A study released earlier this week by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, which surveyed 9,513 U.S. adults, shows a clear picture of the growth of mobile usage.

Here are five stats that I believe news organizations will find intriguing:

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Why #mobile for #newschallenge? There are 6B mobile devices worldwide & they’re much more than just phones kng.ht/QyoJTK

— Knight Foundation (@knightfdn) August 15, 2012

Shortly after recently announcing the theme of  this year’s third News Challenge installment  – “mobile” — the Knight Foundation tweeted an impressive stat backing up reasoning for its choice: there are 6 billion mobile devices worldwide.

Billion. With a “B.”

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If you’ve seen this coverage of an emotional Olympics race on Buzzfeed or this guide of gymnastic detail on The Atlantic Wire, you’ve recently seen some nifty animated GIFs in journalism.

(Note: I didn’t say GIFs about journalism, like these news cats. Hopefully you’ve already seen those.)

The success of GIF-infused content in actual news content has some media circles buzzing around a longtime internet graphic capability: “Is this an overlooked tool, or just a fad?, “Are we Buzzfeedifying maintsream news orgs, or is that a silly question now?”, and “should journalists embrace them, or are they somehow detrimental to the craft?”

They aren’t all simple questions, and I don’t have answers. (I actually posed questions here, too.) But I can comfortably say there are indeed reasons the animated GIF can work well to tell a story online.

Likewise, there are reasons it may not.

Putting other debates aside, here are five simpler questions for journalists to consider on a case-by-case basis before using an animated GIF to help digitally tell your story. Read more

Media attention is heavily focused on London 2012, and so is media experimentation.

With so many eyes looking for every kind of athletic news tidbit (or the opposite, avoiding spoilers), now’s a natural time for trying a new approach and seeing what works.

(Note: Lauren Rabaino also has a nice round-up of neat news projects.)

Here are a few Olympics items that caught my eye, along with some obvious pros, and then, additionally, questions to consider. Read more

Social media producers battle for eyeballs, retweets and clicks. They fight because tweets fly by fast, easily slipping by readers in a stream shared with cat gifs and @KimKierkegaard.

News tweeting’s permanent battlefield fixtures – tweet volume, frequency and serendipity – can always provide challenge. The combo deals a particular blow, however, when your latest tweet contains your big, hot breaking story.

What’s the best way to get followers to notice and click your link when big news hits? Should you break out the “BREAKING”? Should you stick with just “Breaking”? Or should you drop the chyron-bred word and bank on content sparking the spread?

Here are five distinct ways newsrooms on Twitter highlight breaking news, along with some questions to consider before adopting (or adapting) a new strategy for your own. Read more