7 mobile stats that should scare digital publishers

2024/04/19 00:19

After years of predictions that this year would be the year of mobile, finally it has arrived. So here are some numbers that should prompt strategizing and action by digital media publishers.

1. Web traffic from mobile devices was up 78 percent year over year in mid-2013, and 109 percent over 2011, according to Ayaz Nanji, writing in Marketing Profs.

To cite one prominent media example of the trend, ESPN has been registering more than half of its traffic from mobile. For publishers the message is clear: you need a mobile app or mobile-friendly version of your content or your audience will leave you behind.

2. In 2013, for the first time, Americans spent more time on their mobile devices every day than on the desktop, according to eMarketer. Mobile's share of daily time spent, 19.4 percent, is the only category that grew in the past year: television, desktop computers, print and radio all declined, as they have each year since 2010.

3. As of the fourth quarter of 2013, almost half of Facebook's $2.6 billion in total revenue came from advertising sold on mobile devices. This is the world's largest social network, with half a billion daily active users. Facebook has made it clear that it is betting heavily on mobile. Why? Because about three-fourths of its users are there. (As a point of comparison, three-fourths of Twitter's audience and 65 percent of its ad revenues come from mobile. )

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Dave Heath photo exhibition at the National Gallery

2024/04/19 00:15

Dave Heath, New York City, 1962. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Gift of the Hall Family Foundation, 2011.67.32. © Howard Greenberg Gallery and Stephen Bulger Gallery.

The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa is currently exhibiting the work of American street photographer, Dave Heath (1931–2016).

The show, entitled Multitude, Solitude: The Photographs of Dave Heath is curated by Keith Davis from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.

Mr. Davis came to Ottawa to give a talk about the show and the importance of Mr. Heath’s photographs.

Mr. Heath had a difficult childhood and it is reflected in his photographs. He was abandoned by his parents at a young age and bounced around foster homes and orphanages in Philadelphia.

He became interested in photography after being inspired by photo essays in LIFE magazine. He taught himself how to use a camera and work in a darkroom. He made several books of his photographs by hand.

“Dave Heath didn’t do spot news, he did timeless news,” said Mr. Davis. “He was a psychological photographer, not a social photographer. He attempts to record what’s going on in someone’s head.”

The exhibition contains black and white photographs Mr. Heath took as a young man in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York.

Mr. Heath was drafted into the US Army and served in Korea. While there, he took many portraits of fellow soldiers in Korea and the despair of war is evident in these photographs.

A large part of the exhibition is devoted to Mr. Heath’s acclaimed photo book – A Dialogue With Solitude, which contains themes of loneliness and alienation.

In 1970, he moved to Toronto and taught photography at Ryerson University. He continued to take street photographs and some of his colour prints and slide shows are in the last room of the exhibition.

Multitude, Solitude: The Photographs of Dave Heath, continues at the National Gallery until September 2, 2019.