Zero to hero: how Vancouver upped its digital maturity to become one of the most innovative cities in Canada
Vancouver was Canada’s first city to implement a digital strategy more than five years ago in an effort to transform the internal processes of the municipal government and the public services it delivers to citizens. While embarking on such a high-profile strategy was risky, the city has gone from having relatively low digital maturity according to professional services firm PwC, to being an exemplary template and model for cities around the world looking to digitally transform.
As such, the city has been nominated for IT World Canada’s Digital Transformation Awards in the Large Public Sector Transformation category.
IT WORLD
Rogers lays off one-third of its digital and publishing employees
Rogers Media is reducing its digital and publishing staff by one-third, citing pressures on the print industry and the loss of advertising revenues as cause for another round of deep cuts.
The division of Rogers Communications Inc. that publishes titles such as Maclean’s, Chatelaine, Today’s Parent and Hello! Canada, told its staff on Thursday that 75 full-time employees have been laid off.
“The publishing industry continues to face challenges, as print declines outpace digital growth,” Andrea Goldstein, senior director of communications for Rogers Media, said in a statement.
GLOBE AND MAIL
Canadian advertising spend expected to grow by 2.3% in 2018, highest year over year growth than any other market
Leading advertising and digital communications group Dentsu Aegis Network today released its biannual forecasts, pointing to a more positive 2018 for global advertising expenditure than previously expected. Global ad-spend growth will rise from 3.3% in 2017 to 3.9% in 2018 while Canadian ad spend, which remained flat in 2017, is expected to increase by 2.3% this year.
Globally, events such as the Winter Olympics & Paralympics, the FIFA World Cup and national elections will play an important role in stimulating growth. In Canada however, these events are less tied to an increase in ad spend but rather a re-allocation of funds with the exception of elections.
CISION
Google is still very white and very male
Google released its annual diversity report today and though strides have been made in some areas, in others, the company has shown little improvement. Globally, Google is 69.1 percent male and in the US 53.1 percent of the workforce is white, 36.3 percent is Asian, 3.6 percent is Latinx, 2.5 percent is black and 0.3 percent is Native American. Compared to last year, the biggest gains were made in the representation of Asian employees, which increased from 34.7 percent. But the percentage of women in Google’s workforce as well as the representation of black and Latinx individuals saw hardly any change, increasing just 0.1 percentage point over the year. Native American representation didn’t change at all.
ENGADGET