Al DiGuido should blog more frequently about the publishing industry. His “Alservations” postings may be infrequent, but they are eloquent and on point. Take his Aug. 7, 2009 post “No magazines have to die!” for example.
He argues a case for why digital publishing is the answer to the demise of printed publications, and he gives us more than just a passionate argument that makes complete sense to a non-stodgy, non-legacy print folk, he offers up a plan to save magazines! Yes an actual plan!
Ok, so the plan has a handful of well placed plugs for his company, but all the same the strategies he lists to build a bridge from the print world to the digital world are sound strategies. You can read the list here.
I particularly felt motivated by the following statements:
That never before has a publisher had the depth of knowledge about how a reader consumes content and advertising in a real time basis. This knowledge can drive editorial decisions and can provide a sales team with tremendous power in quantifying to advertisers the power of your brand and content with its subscribers...
This is a much more intense and awake publishing industry. The idea that you print something and it has a shelf life is over.
The only suggestion that gives me pause is the second step of the plan - creating a digital replica of your print edition. I see that this is where you get people to opt in to a subscription and have it delivered to a desktop or laptop computer, or a mobile device, or eventually an e-reader that is magazine friendly. However, I think blog driven publishing platforms are already delivering real time publishing. Too bad we have yet to figure out how to get consumers to opt in and pay for this type of content.
On a last note, I like DiGuido’s frank advice. No, he says, it will not be easy to recoup the advertising rates and revenues once enjoyed by the print publishing world.
No, I suppose it won’t. But, gee it is still an exciting time in publishing and digital innovations have given those of us in media a lot to embrace. We have a lot of new ideas to play with and figure out how to turn them into a new legacy of publishing.
“Digital Publishing is the communications medium of 2009 and beyond.” writes DiGuido.
And New Media is about to become the Media, says Leo Laporte.
And I say, blogs are the medium.
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