The Kaiser Family Foundation released a great study on the media consumption habits of 8-18 year-olds. Not surprisingly, Internet usage is growing fast. Reading books has increased slightly, while magazines and newspapers are small and getting smaller. TV dominates, but it’s interesting that Online and Mobile are considered sub-categories of TV. Category boundaries are only getting fuzzier, so I would hate to have to conduct a survey like this in five years (how do you classify it if a kid is listening to music videos while reading a book on their tablet?).

If you’re in the business of marketing to teens, or you’re wondering what the next generation of adults will be like, take a look.

The goal of each of our sites is to be the point of connection within its scene. This means providing a place where visitors can be entertained and informed, and brands can get in front of potential customers. Videos, news, forums, etc. are an important part of this, but product is the backbone of the industry. To that end, we’ve been gradually building out the product sections for all three of our sites. Last year we implemented a design overhaul, and this year we’ve been focusing on having more complete and updated content. On Vital BMX, bikes and frames are the most popular categories, so we’ve put the most emphasis on them.

Key stats for the Vital BMX product guide:

• 306 2011 complete BMX bikes (650 total)
• 221 frames
• 14,714 reviews written by Vital BMX members.
• 766,459 unique visitors to this section in the past 12 months
• 3.6 million pageviews in this section in the past 12 months

We expect steady growth this year as we make improvements to the section. Our product guides are open to all legitimate manufacturers. If you would like your brand to be included, contact Todd Toth at: ttoth (at) vitalmedianet.com.

When we launched our mobile sites in 2008 we knew we were early. Smartphone sales were growing rapidly, but their total ownership was small. Fast forward a few years and things have changed considerably. Currently nearly 1/3 of all Americans own a smartphone, and Nielsen predicts one in two will own one by Christmas. We’ve seen this growth directly in our mobile traffic. Currently each Vital mobile site is receiving over 20k unique visitors per month.

The ability for people to connect more places aligns perfectly with our mission of being the point of connection in our markets. Now more than ever, enthusiasts can connect with Vital content anywhere, anytime.