At the Future of Publishing Summit, #FoPub held today at the Cipriani in NYC - technology and companies came together to share their vision. Google, Sony, Marvell, Qualcomm and HP - not only discussed the trends but gave the audience a glimpse of several new products and technologies. Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies and I worked with conference organizers IRR to create an event that differentiated itself from the many others covering the digital publishing industry - by tackling issues across books, newspapers and magazines (while recognizing their different issues) and also by bringing several critical West Coast technology companies to the capital of publishing. For the next event - we're considering the reverse
The publishers were excited about the ability of the new devices to better showcase digital editions and hopeful that they could charge for quality digital content on mobile. While progress is being made - work remains to done on workflow and metrics. The need for publishers to take a strong position on getting access to (non PII) user data was a key topic.
There was a perspective was that Apple's spat with Adobe over Flash - at least short term - opens significant opportunities for many competing devices once they hit the market. I'm a fan of Apple's products - but I have serious doubts about their decisions not to directly support key Adobe technologies in the mobile browser..
Welcome,
During the last 20 years spent in
publishing I’ve watched the sun start to set on an old media age (print) but been
very grateful to be part of the dawn of the digital media era – we're seeing a revolution on the reading experience - today we’ve so many new ways to inform and
entertain audiences with great content - unburdened by the past restrictions of the print container.
We focused the
Future of Publishing Summit on the symbiotic relationship between content
and emerging technology and the opportunities it brings to publishers - with a particular focus on mobility.
However there’s additional pressure on publishers and authors . The bar is now
so much higher. Although some will see that as a creative opportunity.
Unlike the static world of
print, digital requires publishers and authors to create and deliver dynamic, compelling, multi-media content
– audio, text, images, video and interactivity all within a seamless user experience. Users now expect a media experience
that takes full advantage of the display,
functionality and navigation of their devices.
Mobile media is particularly
exciting, because it can delivery both the lean forward active, and social
media aspects of online and the lean back elements of print - plus a lot more. Mobile has several unique
elements - but most importantly it’s an extremely personal media –also it knows where you are. "You
can be uniquely profiled by your mobile phone number “ The content targeting
and marketing opportunities are very significant.
Mobile is the most recent and
most disruptive mass media -- all previous
mass media have had profound impact on the distribution of news, information
and entertainment - but until the Internet, mass media presented and pushed information downstream in a one
directional way. However, the Internet – gave
us our first bi-directional mass media -- you can search for content, interact
with it and share it with friends and colleagues - the end result – powerful
social networks plus a lot of money
for the search engines.
Mobile is truly a mass media.
We’ll have 5BN mobile
subscriptions worldwide this year .
Mobile data traffic will double
every year through.
At
the iPad launch, Apple's Steve Jobs described Apple as a Mobile Devices company. That’s a massive signal to the publishing
industry. Eric Schmidt is leading a
Mobile First strategy at Google. It seems clear; the long-term future is
mobile.
Mobile data services are not
new - SMS/ MMS, ringtones, mobile entertainment, are all massive industries but
the difference today from these direct response services is the range of mobile-web, content opportunities.
25%
of Americans use cell phone to access news – but
only 17% read a national (print) newspaper such as NYTimes or USAToday. Already
the Internet ranks just behind TV in popularity, soon the Mobile Internet will overtake the PC
Internet. Now is the time to plan for mobile.
Mobility skews younger - those
under 50 are three times more likely to access information on the go. Younger users
take full advantage of the mobile Internet - they take pictures, SMS / Message each other, use social
networking sites, blog, and send out status updates. So engaging this younger demographic with
compelling content will be key for the industry’s future.
Just in time, on the go, personalized
news is a big opportunity for news media but mobility is also reshaping the
book and magazine industries. e-books volume is modest - around 3-5% of total
book sales - but the projected growth is intoxicating.
Books as applications are now
the largest segment (at least by number of applications) in the iTunes Apps
store and with the launch of 150 categories on the iPad, these numbers are
likely to increase rapidly. But ss numbers grow – so is the challenge of
discovery.
The book industry is being
re-imagined as it is unleashed from the static environment of print – enhanced
digital products from trade fiction to education look to combine audio, text,
images, and video with the ability to interact with and share content. vook and Scroll Motion will discuss products that go far beyond “pdf”
versions of a print book.
There going to be more
competition – It’s much easier to self publish so expect a surge of innovation
and creativity from young entrepreneurs (and maybe some older ones) that will
act as competitive catalyst to the industry but may also scare some.
If this event had been held a
couple of weeks later many of us would be iPad owners. Although some have been
quick to hail Apple's new “media consumption device” as the savior of the
publishing industry – it’s still very unclear as to exactly what content will
be consumed or will be popular on the device.
Publishers
can now design to the new devices – Ok, some may still favor
the discrete or definite publishing format – one that’s closer to a print
experience (a digital replica) perhaps enhanced with multimedia and social sharing
technologies. More innovative
publishers will see the tablets as a creative canvas, large and versatile
enough for more freeform layouts that are closer to a web experience.
I believe, content designed
specifically for mobile devices and the mobile medium will be much more
effective and engaging than just a digital replica version of a print product. As mobile is even more measurable than
online and as Data trumps opinion – publishers (and advertisers) will be able
to measure what really works.
There are no quick, easy
answers – so it’s great to see experimental digital magazine prototypes from Condé
Nast, Bonnier, Time's SI and others. Initiatives from Next Issue Media and
digital distributions platforms from Zinio, Skiff, Scroll Motion, Texterity and
Blio will all help get digital content in front of readers.
e-reader and tablet pricing will
continue to fall. Digital
storefronts from Apple, Google, Amazon even Wal-Mart will drive rapid adoption
of digital content. This is a massive opportunity for the industry – well, once
we figure out the revenues!
Predicting the future can be
a dangerous game. It’s hard to identify the exact winning products – but it’s not so hard to identify trends – we’re dealing with the rapid shift to consuming
and creating dynamic content on mobile devices.
The
transition to online was pretty rough for publishers but mobility gives a reset
opportunity – a chance to better balance digital revenue streams between
advertising and paid content and to embrace the benefits of social networking.
Even
if revenue today is modest, publishers should look to building a strategic plan
covering both a Mobile Internet Strategy and a Mobile Apps strategy,
Technology is neither
the grim reaper nor the salvation for publishers. However, the combination of compelling
content coupled with great technology can dazzle and engage digital readers. Technology
and publishing need each other. East
Coast meet West Coast! Tie – no tie!
The market is
big enough to support many approaches. Tablets such as the iPad will easily allow
you to surf the web, listen, watch video, email and chat with your friends,
play games and yes maybe even read in-depth articles as well.
But for some
that’s just too much noise –
there’s a large audience who wants a quieter, uninterrupted reading experience
– e-readers can serve this large market well.
We won't solve
all the issues for the publishing industry here but we can lay some foundations
for the opportunities ahead. Let's continue the
conversation and exchange ideas on the Future of Publishing at:
Twitter - Media_Summit #FoPub
Linkedin
Group - Future of Publishing
Facebook
Page - Future of
Publishing
Comments