GADGET-loving North-Easterners are increasingly turning to smartphones and tablets to keep up-to-date with breaking news.

One in three people in the region owns a wireless internet-capable smartphone or tablet device.

And with the launch of the Apple iPad 3 next week, those in the industry are already predicting that this year could be the year tablet devices replace laptop computers among internet-savvy users.

The increase in the number of phones and tablets is reflected in the latest website audit carried out by Newsquest, owner of The Northern Echo and sister paper The Darlington and Stockton Times.

The survey, carried out between July and December last year, revealed that, on average, more than eight million people access the group’s network of media sites every month.

And during the second half of last year, visitors increasingly turned to smartphones and tablets.

Visits by people using portable devices increased from 12.6 per cent in July to 18.5 per cent by December.

Roger Green, digital media managing director for Newsquest, said: “In December, we launched a new version of our mobile site network to meet the growing appetite of smartphone users for up-to-the-minute news and local travel information.

“Users who access our content on the move are increasingly making repeat visits to our sites, helping us grow our page views by more than 31 million during the audit period.”

According to an independent audit in January, Newsquest sites were the UK’s fourth most visited in the news category after the Mail Online, The Guardian and The Telegraph – putting its sites ahead of any other regional media group. And the army of online readers is growing.

Between 2010 and last year the number of unique visitors to Newsquest websites soared by 11.5 per cent.

Two years ago, The Northern Echo became the first Newsquest title to launch an app for the iPhone.

Its World Cup app became one of the most popular apps of its type in the world. The newspaper followed that with a free North-East football app.

This year, The Northern Echo has been chosen to pioneer a digital version of the paper for the iPad. Trials are taking place and it will be launched on iTunes shortly.