Nowadays, it is assumed the consumption patterns between most adults and youngsters differ considerably. Adults consistently follow the news, believing current affairs have wide impact on their livelihoods and businesses, while teens and young adults are entertainment- and fashion-oriented.

The problem, then, for news providers is how to reach these elusive youngsters as they become fully fledged adults.

"We found that teenagers and young adults don't read newspapers," said Wanee Ratapon, CEO of Initiative Media. "Occasionally they pick up a couple of magazines, but in the future, they will only need a mobile phone to get the news they want. It doesn't matter where it comes from. News can be passed on from friends.

"E-mails, something many adults still struggle to understand, will become obsolete."

Wannee said mobile phones were fashion items for this segment. They look for phones that answer all their daily needs - hence, devices with built-in camera, video recorder, radio and MP3 player. Such functions have become standard.

"We have to admit that kids these days are very capable of getting their own news. On average they can absorb 4.5 times as much information as an average adult is capable of. They can multitask - talking on the phone, while they surf the Web, as Internet radio and television blast in the background," Wannee said.

The battle for audiences is shifting to the mobile phone, which constitutes a "changing communication model".

To adapt to the new phenomenon in media consumption, Titinan Kamolsakhamjon, manager of Advanced Info System's (AIS) new media development, said media professionals must first understand the new behaviour. This can be done easily with new media and mobile phones, as user profiles can be easily collected from the database.

Titinan believes that, in the age of mobile news, services ought to be tailored to individual customers. He identifies two different ways news is consumed, which he categorises as "push news" and "pull news".

Push news is when news is beamed straight to users in SMS and MMS formats. Nittinan said there are 20,000 subscribers to news provided by iTV through the AIS network. Users can receive the news they want.

Pull news is news on demand. Customers browse for the latest news via wireless application protocol or mobile Internet.

Content providers will need to provide tailored news to consumers' very idiosyncratic needs.