Factoids

In 2008, “for the first time, consumers spent more time with media they paid for, like books or cable television, than with primarily ad-supported media, like newspapers and magazines.” (Source: NY Times, citing a Veronis Suhler Stevenson report)

The U.S. now has more DVD kiosks than video stores. (Source: Reed Hastings, in the NY Times)

The U.S. Census Bureau issued new data today showing “that 62 percent of households reported using Internet access in the home in 2007, an increase from 18 percent in 1997.” Also, “Among households using the Internet in 2007, 82 percent reported using a high-speed connection.”

A five-country survey, commissioned by Philips and reported in today’s Financial Times finds that the recession exacting another price: Lost zzzz’s. “The average manager is sleeping 19 percent less than the recommended eight hours a night.” “Some 40 percent of those questioned blame the state of the global economy for their insomnia.” [What do the other 60 […]

“More than 16 million people — one in eight workers on U.S. payrolls — work in health care today, up from just 1% of the work force 50 years ago.”(Source: WSJ, 4.13.09)

“New homes, after doubling in size since 1960, are shrinking. Last year, for the first time in at least 10 years, the average square footage of single-family homes under construction fell dramatically, from 2,629 in the second quarter to 2,343 in the fourth quarter, Census data show.”(Source: USA Today via Unclutterer)

“A study of cheating among graduate students, published in 2006 in the journal Academy of Management Learning & Education, found that 56 percent of all M.B.A. students cheated regularly— more than in any other discipline.”(Source: NY Times, 3/15/09)

Today’s NY Times Business section reports that 11,000 people work at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Equally staggering, “Forty million visitors arrive here each year, which, according to the mall’s promotional material, is more than visit Disney World, the Grand Canyon and Graceland combined.”

86 percent of Japanese high school students read cell phone novels.(Source: Teleread and Japan Today)  

The National Endowment for the Arts issued a report yesterday titled Reading on the Rise, which showed that more Americans have their noses in books. Kinda.The percentage of adults who’d read a novel, short story, play, or poem in the last 12 months climbed to 50.2 percent. That’s up from 46.7 percent in 2002. Good […]