Publishing 2012
World Bank/George Washington University
Mexico City, Feb 2007
Preparing for the Future:
Digital Strategies for Publishers
fullday3
Michael Jon Jensen

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Digital Publishing Business Models Service-driven Publisher-driven Advertiser-driven

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Business Models: Service-driven Contractual, non-exclusive licenses; service as wholesaler Ebrary NetLibrary Questia Google Book Search Amazon

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Business Models: Publisher-driven O'Reilly's SafariU, online subscriptions, NAP, etc. All require substantial technical infrastructure. Institutional Subscriptions (consortia, universities, businesses, even entire countries) Individual Subscriptions (to site, to journal, to collection) Consumer Reports, History Cooperative, e.g. Individual Purchases (PDFs, e-books)

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Business Models: Advertiser-driven Wowio (for books) Google AdSense (for journal articles, book pages, etc.)

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Which model is most appropriate? Depends on size, publishing purpose, audience types, etc...

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Much may depend on the near-future: 2012 Majority population broadband Always-on, all the time Cellphone / E-Ink readers much cheaper Print On Demand + traditional print "Information" cheap, "knowledge" still costly Online audience participation presumed

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2012, Continued Web content has grown 1000% Web content is "basic library" for everyone Library funding now threatened "Harvesters" and "Web 3.0" -- machine intelligences processing and finding value for individuals "Free" continues to win in many markets Open access predominates Every publisher's competition is everything else in the world Many niches for quality, many niches for specialty, many niches of specialized customers

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Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) What Strengths can be amplified? Content that is best in print? Content that is appealing for a particular audience? Content that is worth paying for? Content you can sell to aggregators? Content you can use to entice, for other purposes? Content in multiple "containers"? Understanding of marketplace and intermediators? Understanding of audience expectations? Understanding of author expectations?

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SWOT: Weaknesses What Weaknesses need adjusting? Understanding of "online culture"? In-house technical skills? Understanding of larger Spanish digital marketplace? Investment in training/education of staff? Emphasis on reference/"information" publishing? Contacts in outsourcing businesses?

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SWOT: Opportunities What Opportunities are arising? Huge potential new audiences/markets via Google, Yahoo, etc. Potential library markets for aggregated content New companies/technologies are making it easier to digitize and e-publish Amazon and other digital marketplaces enable additional revenue Consortial arrangements (publisher cooperation) on topic-specific aggregations Remote print-on-demand reduces shipping costs, local print-on-demand decreases warehousing (but still higher unit cost) First-to-market collections of historical/social sciences resources for university library market

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SWOT: Threats Near-future Threats Easier than ever for self-publishing (see Lulu.com) Print-on-demand options, monster aggregators Low-cost book scanners scan 250 pages in an hour into searchable PDF Low capital outlay for e-publications New abilities for people to "volunteer" their time, to make up for amateur expertise User resistance to Digital Rights Management Challenges of "free content" and shared content

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Break

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E-publishing Skill Sets For 2001: 50% IT understanding, 15% Web understanding, 5% external engagement, 40% content understanding, etc. For 2007: 20% IT understanding, 30% Web market understanding, 10% external engagement, 30% content understanding, 10% creative thought, etc. For 2012: 2% IT understanding, 25% Web market understanding, 25% external engagement, 23% content understanding, 25% creative thought, etc. See Graph

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E-publishing Skill Sets, continued Technology issues can be outsourced, but understanding cannot Broadly engaged in information space Find and mine new niches Find and mine micromarkets for your content Find and monetize licensing opportunities Being willing to take risks, the hardest thing for any publisher to do.

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Key Conceptual Shifts: Intermediation: Traditional publishing sells through bookstores We do not know our customers individually or personally. Relationships: Online interactions are with individuals, and so thinking about our customers, and customer service must change. Formats: Container is not the same as content. Context: World of information abundance, rather than scarcity Free content is required, for customers to find us The "Long Tail" and the always-on society Niche markets demand agile methodologies

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Final Discussions

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Thank you! Michael Jensen Santiago Pombo