North Americans spend more than 10 hours a day on media consumption

Research has shown that, globally, people read, listened, streamed and posted media for 456 minutes a day in 2016. That's 7.6 hours a day. But North American consumption was up by 1.8 per cent to an astounding 612 minutes a day, or about 10 hours. 

The analysis by the research firm Zenith was reported by Recode said that the global consumption plateaued in the past  year.

According to Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting at Zenith, mobile internet drove our overall media consumption because it turned “what used to be non-media activity (talking to friends and family) to media activity (social media).”

Mobile is inexorable when it comes to consumer media consumption

If you're feeling pressure for your publication to provide mobile-delivered content, the above chart from eBusiness Insider may explain part of the reason. Only mobile is growing in consumer media consumption, year by year, in the U.S. The data was compiled by BI Intelligence.

Surging Canadian mobile advertising revenue brings prediction of $2.5 billion in paid mobile by 2018

This year, advertisers in Canada will spent $715.7 million on mobile internet ads, including all mobile phone, tablets and other connected devices. It represents a 119.2% increase, according to calculations by eMarketer, but will be the last year of triple-digit growth (albeit from a small base) to which the industry has been accustomed. By 2018, advertisers will devote an estimated $2.58 billion to paid, mobile internet media. 

(US ad spending on the internet increased 17 per cent in 2013 to a record $42.8 billion, according to the Financial Times; for the first time, it has surpassed broadcast television. Mobile ad spending now represents 17 per cent of the US digital ad market. 

(Mobile ad spending hit $7.1bn in 2013, up 110 per cent from $3.4bn in 2012, according to the IAB. Mobile advertising now accounts for about 17 per cent of the US digital ad market.

According to the IAB Internet Advertising Report and PwC US, internet advertising revenues in the U.S. were up 19% in early 2014 at $11.6 billion. 

(Reports are that the U.S. advertising market inched up only 0.7% in the 2nd quarter of 2014, with TV, down 7.2%; magazines, off 5.7%; newspapers, shedding 10.4%; radio, off 3.6%; outdoor, slipping 1.6%; and spot TV, off 0.5%. Magazines suffered from lower results in pharmaceutical and consumer package good particularly.)

Rogers's mobile and web redesign is paying off in increased readership

Since rolling out redesigned, tile-based layouts for all of its consumer magazines, with Maclean's being the most recent, Rogers Publishing has seen significant growth in digital readership on both websites and mobile, according to a J-source story. 

Ryan Trotman, senior director and digital publisher is quoted as saying that responsive design -- all content curated and edited the same for various platforms and for all titles -- has proven popular with readers, but engagement is highest on the iPad.  On the app version, readers don't visit as often but when they do, they read more pages and are more likely to read cover-to-cover. Website users tend to visit more often, but only read a few articles at a time. 

Since November 2012, pageviews on mobile have gone up 65% and on the redesigned websites about 35%. (Particularly in mobile, it should be noted that these percentages are from a relatively small base.) 

5 ways that publishers screw up when it comes to mobile

If the future is mobile, many publishers didn't get the memo. According to a post on Digiday, there are several ways in which newspaper and magazine publishers screw up when transmitting their sites to smartphones and tablets, mostly because they are still wedded to a desktop paradigm. The post cites five "deadly sins" of mobile:

• Porting -- simply moving your desktop site over to the mobile web, resulting in clutter and tiny displays.
• Pinch and zoom -- font sizes need to be readable and not require users to reverse-pinch their screens.
• Pagination -- breaking stories into pages and expecting readers to look at a slide show or a 15-page article on a smartphone.
• Hover -- publishers forget there isn't a mouse on a mobile device, so readers can't scroll over images to get more information.
• Load time -- Publishers aren't economical with images, taking account of the slower connection and load times on a mobile phone. Readers may consider whether it's worth waiting for, and decide it's not.

Quote, unquote: On the checkout line attention deficit

One of the reasons given for the precipitous fall in newsstand sales is the "mobile blinder", the name given to the habit people now have of using their mobile phone while waiting to pay in the supermarket, where once they would have browsed magazines or picked up some chewing gum.  

"We do find a number of people, if stalled for a minute, will steal a look at their email or news feed," David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines, told the FT. "Everyone that has products at checkouts has to battle for consumer attention," he added.

-- Linking the drop in US newsstand sales to mobile phone use, the so-called "mobile blinders" effect. [from the site of research firm, WARC]

Top U.S. magazines using mobile codes (e.g. QR) more and more

A quarterly survey of the top 100 U.S. national consumer magazines reports that use of mobile codes such as QR, was up 107% between the second quarter of this year and the same period last year. 

According to a story on MobileMarketing Daily, some sort of mobile milestone was reached as every one of the top 100 magazines had at least one code and 90% had more than 10.

"The count is likely to go up considerably in the next report, since the all-important September issues of many magazines are going all-in for mobile activation. A number of titles are using image recognition techniques to make almost every ad actionable. GQ plans to mobilize every ad in its September issue, while Seventeen will have over 250 mobile-ready images.

"Mobile activation is emerging as a standard operating procedure for some print ads. In just a year, the share of print ads with codes has risen from 5% to 10%. QR codes continue to be the leading form of activation, with over 80% of the instances. But watermarking and image recognition techniques via augmented reality apps have emerged as important areas of growth. On the editorial side, magazines prefer the less intrusive nature of triggering technologies."

TC Media launches Montreal app to pay parking fees with a smartphone

TC Media, which in other departments publishes magazines, has launched a mobile app in collaboration with the Montreal Parking Authority (Stationnement de Montréal) which will allow motorists to pay for their parking with their smart phones. It's not the first North American city to have such a system, but the parking agency promotes it as a "made in Montreal" solution. According to a story in Marketing magazine,

The app allows a person to pay or renew parking fees for a specific spot and duration, and also alerts the user before the parking period expires. Hurried motorists can access the app free of charge on iPhone, BlackBerry and Android smartphones. It’s also available online and at pservicemobile.ca for the mobile version. Users will pay 40 cents per transaction with part of that revenue going to TC Media, which also shared in development costs.

TC Media said it registered 13,000 subscriptions to the new service in the first week.

Canadian entertainment and media market to outpace U.S., says PwC

The consulting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers says that the Canadian entertainment and media market will gow at a 6.5% compound annual growth rate between now and 2016. Its Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2012-2016 predicts that internet advertising will continue to grow significantly, led by mobile and that it will outpace the U.S. where compound growth will be about 5.2%.

“Mobile advertising is still a small market but it’s soaring in North America. Between 2010 and 2011 the segment grew by almost 149% in the U.S. and 109% in Canada,” says Michael Paterson, a partner in PwC’s Canadian Entertainment & Media practice. “Given the amount of time consumers are spending on their devices outside of making phone calls, it’s glaringly apparent how much of an opportunity this advertising medium is.” 

The report says that, in 2011, entertainment and media spending in North America grew by 3.3%; in Canada, it grew 5.7% due to higher spending on internet advertising (22.8%) and internet access (17.5%). It suggests there are several "tipping points" for Canada, including

• Internet ads beat out TV ads by 2014: Canadian spending on internet advertising will overtake TV advertising by 2014 and be 23% larger by 2016.
• Video games overtake consumer books: spending on video games will overtake spending on consumer and educational books in Canada this year, to be almost 20% larger by 2016.
• Music: Canadian spending on music rose 2% in 2011, the first gain in many years, thanks to the growth in the concert and music festival market and a slower decline in recorded music spending. As a result, and due to increased spending on digital music, overall spending will increase from now through to 2016 at 4.1% CAGR.

The report was released with data for 13 segments of worldwide E&M markets in 48 countries.

Mobile game from Condé Nast lets players indulge runway fantasies

Condé Nast is launching a mobile game called  Fashion Hazard, debuting next month on the iPhone and iPad, with Android devices to follow. It is a product of the Interactive Product Group (IPG), which creates smaller digital products not tied to CN's individual magazine titles.  

Aimed at teens and young women, Fashion Hazard allows players to live out a runway model fantasy,  choosing one of four different model names and identities, then embarking on a career that takes them through New York, Milan, Paris and London. The game will be available for an as-yet-unannounced fee.

"Advancing through your model career means walking hazardous runways while dodging objects thrown by hostile crowds and playing touch-screen wackamole during “photo ops” as the paparazzi attack," says the Ad Age report.

"In each city, your model avatar (three female models and one male are available) faces unique challenges, all aimed at capturing those escapist model fantasies.

“It’s fun and sassy,” said Juliana Stock, senior director marketing and product development at Condé Nast.

Mobile opportunities are huge but publishers have to make the most of them, MPA says

A white paper from the Association of Magazine Media (MPA, formerly the Magazine Publishers of America) says that tablets, e-readers and smartphones have created a whole new world of opportunities for publishers and advertisers, if they can just stay flexible and figure out how to take advantage of the opportunity.

Personal Mobile Devices: Tablets, E-Readers and Smartphones (Implications for Publishers and Advertisers) notes that the transformative environment began with the 2007 introduction of the iPhone and there is no letup in sight.

The paper (which is downloadable as a pdf) says not every platform makes sense for all forms of content, but notes that the new, mobile landscape requires publishers to understand not only the features and capabilities of various devices, but the ways in which readers use them. That means understanding that consumer can interract with each other over such devices, can interract directly with the content creator (publisher or advertiser) or can interact with the content directly. 

Smart publishers will want to be offering content on each of the major operating systems concurrently.
They need to be aware that each new OS requires a separate product development investment.

St. Joseph Corporation launches mobile printing stations at Pearson Airport

St. Joseph Communications has made a foray into the mobile world as it officially announced the deployment of eight, self-service mobile printing kiosks at Pearson International Airport. The patent-pending ePrintit Kiosks -- said in an earlier release to be the world's first self-service public-pay kiosks --  is equipped with proprietary monitoring software developed by St. Joseph and is supported by HP and PrinterOn. 

Consumers can print reports, presentations and photos by downloading the HP ePrint service app to smartphones or tablets. Documents can be sent directly to the kiosks, each of which has a dedicated e-mail address. Each kiosk is equipped with an HP colour laser printer, a Citizen dye-sublimation photo printer, an online video camera, and 42” digital signage.

“More than 19 per cent of the world’s cell phones are smartphones and this is expected to reach 50 per cent by Christmas,” says Tony Gagliano, Executive Chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Communications. “With the introduction of the ePrintit Kiosk, hundreds of millions of smartphone users worldwide can now quickly and conveniently print out their documents on the fly.”

The kiosks have been installed in high-traffic areas throughout the airport and will be viewed by an average of 87,000 people per day, the company said. Four are in Terminal 1, four in Terminal 3.

St. Joseph is, in addition to being one of Canada's largest printers and a communications and marketing company, is  also owner and publisher of some of Canada’s leading consumer magazines, including Toronto Life and FASHION Magazine, though there is no indication that the kiosks would be useful or cost-effective to print out magazines on the spot. 

Magazines increasingly turning to Polar Mobile to launch mobile apps

Recently there's been some attention paid to one of the ascendant players in the mobile app revolution as it relates to magazines. Polar Mobile is a Canadian company founded in Waterloo in 2007 and now based in Toronto that has more than 1,000 apps with 9 million subscribers on behalf of 300 customers -- including some of the largest magazine publishers -- in 10 countries.

Last week it entered into the largest mobile deal in Canadian history to launch over 500 mobile apps for the local newspapers of Torstar's Metroland Media. It recently partnered with such diverse clients as TVO, the NFL Players and Major League Baseball Players associations and in March estimated it would be launching 100 apps for Research in Motion's PlayBook.

Polar's reputation is for creating mobile content solutions for better-known media brands, ones that work across all major smartphone devices (Apple, Blackberry, Android, Windows Phone, Samsung). Among the titles with which it is or has worked are Canadian Living, Elle and Hockey News from Transcontinental Media, Maclean's, Marketing and Canadian Business from Rogers and big U.S. titles such as TIME, Sports Illustrated, Wired, Variety, CBS Sports, Crain's, CNNMoney and Advertising Age.

ABC says publishers expect mobile to be a big part of their publications future delivery

The Audit Bureau of Circulations says that 65% of publishers anticipate mobile distribution to play a major role in their future success. That's up from 55% last year. According to a release reporting the results of ABC's 2010 survey, 37% of publishers expect mobile applications to contribute positively to their total revenues within two years. But 78% say they expect a mix of delivery formats and 78% say they didn't think they'd switch to digital-only delivery within the next five years.

Today's Parent magazine enables readers to do mobile shopping for children's gifts

Today's Parent magazine has launched a free mobile application called the Gift Finder that allows smartphone-equipped readers to find gifts for children. The app is sponsored by the toy store chain Toys"R"Us, and when users dowload the app on their iPhone, iTouch or iPad, they get a coupon code for $5 off a purchase of $25 or more at Toys"R"Us stores.

The majority of the toys in the Gift Finder come from the Today's Parent "Top Toys" list, a highly anticipated annual feature in Today's Parent magazine," says a release. "The Today's Parent Gift Finder application is the first iPhone application from a Canadian parenting magazine brand.

"The Today's Parent Gift Finder application is a great tool for anyone with a child on their shopping list - anytime of the year," says Claude Galipeau, SVP & GM, Digital Media, Rogers Media Inc. "We are excited to launch this application using the reliable reviews from Today's Parent to help parents, relatives and friends, pick out the best presents for the children in their lives. Santa himself will want this app!"

The Hockey News's mobile applications downloaded more than 1 million times

The Hockey News's mobile application (thn.mobi) has been downloaded over 1 million times since it was launched in October 2008, the publisher has announced. 

The Transcontinental Media title was an early adopter of mobile application, believing that hockey fans were hungry for news on the game, trades, stats and other articles. Apparently they were right. Now, in terms of usage, it is among the top 5% of mobile applications worldwide. It is available to smartphone users, including iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices. Other Transcon mobile apps are Canadian Living and Elle magazine. 

"Transcontinental shoots to win when developing products—whether print, online or mobile—that are relevant to our readers no matter how they like their content," said Natalie Larivière, president, Transcontinental Media,in a release  "With over sixty years covering hockey, The Hockey News has the experience in the sport to give hockey fans exactly what they're looking for on the hugely successful application."

U.S cellphone data shows more texting than web browsing

Research released by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and reported in Silicon Valley Insider notes that while 86% of Americans now own cellphones*, accessing the mobile internet on them is far less common than sending pictures or text messaging. Only 28% access web pages (it goes up to 48% for 18-29 year olds) and 20% download apps. Older cellphone owners 50 - 64 use text messaging (51%) far more than mobile web (15%).

This is an important consideration for magazines considering major investments in creating mobile-enabled versions of their publications. Looked at another way, there's lots of room for growth, though web-access seems more likely on netbooks and tablets than on the teeny screens of cellphones.

 *About 70% of Canadians 16-60 own cellphones, well down the league tables and lowest among G8 countries and comparable with Vietnam and Mexico. [TSN Canadian Facts] (This couldn't have anything to do with the Canadian pricing of cellphone service and texting, could it...?)
 

The Hockey News scores on a cellphone near you

Transcontinental Media's TheHockeyNews.com , which enjoys more than 380,000 unique visitors every month, has announced that it has launched a free mobile platform; according to a story in Media in Canada, selected THN content will now be available on portable devices such as cellphones and Blackberries by typing in mobile.THN.com.

Caroline Andrews, publisher, sports & entertainment for Transcontinental said: "There is a huge appetite for the hockey news and features that THN.com is famous for delivering, so having a presence on mobile plays perfectly into the behaviour of THN.com's core audience."