Tag Archives: publishing models

Publishers and the iPad: No Future in Control

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Control. Magazine publishers love it. Especially B2B publishers (why do you think they call it “controlled circulation”?).

Or at least they love it until someone else has it. Then it’s evil.

To a cynical eye like mine, this seems to be the back story to the ongoing tussle between periodical publishers and Apple over the management of magazine app subscriptions. The publishers want to control the subscription process and have full access to subscriber data; Apple wants to keep that control to itself, skim off 30% of the subscription price, and give publishers limited access to the data. As aptly summarized by Peter Kafka, “Magazine publishers used to salivate over the iPad. Now they’re a lot more reserved. ”

What was it that got publishers drooling in the first place? The opportunity to reassert control.

Let’s face it, most publishers have never really embraced the Web. Its openness is a direct challenge to their traditional models of operation. It makes it too hard to control who gets their product, how much they can charge for it, and who they have to compete against. The iPad seemed to offer them a chance to grab back a big chunk of the control the Web was taking away from them. It gave publishers, as Cory Doctorow put it, “a daddy figure who’ll promise them that their audience will go back to paying for their stuff.”

Of course, daddy figures have a downside: if you want complete control, you probably shouldn’t do business with them.

So should publishers turn their back on the iPad? Or should they simply accept Apple’s conditions? Not necessarily. The iPad and other tablets are really distinct new forms of media that offer users a new way of experiencing content, and to the extent that Apple is putting up hurdles to that experience, publishers are right to fight back.

But the future of publishing is openness, not walled gardens; sharing, not limiting. If their main motive for battling Apple is simply to increase their control, publishers may ultimately find they have no future at all.

Is a Blog Just a Container?

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Photo courtesy Haags Uitburo

Today I came across a comment from Adam Tinworth on the reignited debate, in certain UK circles at least, over whether bloggers can be legitimate journalists. This debate—fairly one-sided in favor of blogs—was set off by the probably unscripted speechifying of British journalist-historian Andrew Marr.

In reflecting on this latest blogger brushoff, Adam Smith approvingly quoted Tinworth’s comment on Twitter that “you can do journalism on a blog” and that Marr is “making a massive category error.” A blog, Tinworth said, is a container, not an activity. As he put it elsewhere on Twitter, Marr’s criticism of blogs as fine things for certain purposes but inadequate to the task of journalism is like saying that “magazines are fantastic, but won’t replace journalism.”

I agree wholeheartedly with Tinworth’s position in this context—you absolutely can practice high-quality journalism in a blog. (And prior to indulging in what might appear like criticism, let me state for the record that Tinworth is one of my favorite and most respected bloggers.)

However, to dwell for a moment on the metaphor of container vs. content,  can we really say that the blog format doesn’t influence its content? Would we say that blogging and other forms of social media have not in fact altered the practice of journalism? Or that journalism as we knew it a decade ago can simply be ported into social media without undergoing some degree of transformation?

I don’t think so (and, again, I’m not saying that Tinworth thinks so either).

Now to some extent, your position on this matter will be determined by how you define a blog. If you think, as Mark Schaeffer put it in the course of  the  “great ghost-blogging debate,” that a blog is just a mechanism for publishing, you’ll argue that it can be used for any kind of content.  If, on the other hand you think, like Schaeffer’s opponent, Mitch Joel, that blogs imply a certain attitude and voice, you’ll have a more restrictive view of appropriate blog content.

Of course, no matter what you as the blogger think, your audience has the final call. A few years ago, when a magazine I worked with started its first blog, one of the first commenters called us to task for not being bloggy enough. The content we were posting, he said, was just like what we put in the magazine. That was fine, but it wasn’t, to his mind, what we should do in a blog. He wanted a little more liveliness, spontaneity, and opinion. I’d like to say that we immediately agreed and changed our ways, but, in those days at least, we thought that view of blogging was incompatible with journalism.

Look, though I won’t try to prove it here, the fact is that blogging has influenced the way we practice journalism, just as it has changed the attitudes and expectations of the consumers of journalism. Readers expect more immediacy, more transparency, more injection of the self, and more interactivity in their news content. I don’t think that means you can’t practice journalism in a blog.  But it does mean that a blog is not simply a sterile, inert container that has no effect on its content. And I, for one, think that’s a good thing.

Managing Your Career in the Social Media Era: Sources

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As part of a webinar for B2B editors on September 23, 2010, I’m speaking on “Managing Your Career in the Social Media Era.” (The webinar, “Enhancing Your Career in the B2B Press,” is sponsored by the American Society of Business Press Editors.)

Since the webinar format isn’t particularly conducive to embedded links, I’ve listed here the main sources cited in my talk. I’ve included key quotes from most of the sources below in the hopes that even if you haven’t heard my presentation, you’ll be interested in exploring the originals on your own.

Future of news: Insider Dave Morgan touts new media

“Tomorrow’s companies will build empires based on the value that they deliver to their users and advertisers every day, not on their ability to finance and manage scarce bandwidth or expensive printing presses or exclusive distribution networks.”

“No longer is the media world one of a publishers-top editor-section editor-subeditor-journalist hierarchy. Today, audiences are in charge and they want direct access to, and interaction with, journalists.”

What Would Google Do?, by Jeff Jarvis

“Even if the Wall Street Journal reports a scoop behind its paywall, once that information comes out—quoted, linked, blogged, aggregated, remixed, and e-mailed all over—it’s no longer exclusive and rare.”

Gary Hamel: Hierarchy of Employee Traits for the Creative Economy

In discussing the employee traits valued by old media and new media respectively, I invoke Hamel’s “commodity” traits of obedience, diligence, and intellect and his “creative economy” traits of initiative, creativity, and passion.

The Answer Factory: Demand Media and the Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell Media Model

“‘You can take something that is thought of as a creative process and turn it into a manufacturing process.’”

Can Robots Run the News?

“To the chagrin of sports reporters everywhere, a team from Northwestern University’s engineering and journalism schools has created a program that automatically generates sports news stories. Stats Monkey uses the box score and play-by-play—even quotes, if they’re available online—to compile articles that follow one of the system’s pre-defined narrative arcs.”

Paul Conley: The seasons, they go round and round

“My working life is now completely consumed by content marketing. As recently as December, most of my income derived from traditional publishers practicing traditional B2B journalism (although mostly on the Web, rather than print.) That is no longer true.”

Crush It!, by Gary Vaynerchuk.

“Everyone—EVERYONE—needs to start thinking of themselves as a brand. It is no longer an option; it is a necessity.” “Your latest tweet and comment on Facebook and most recent blog post? That’s your résumé now.”

Joe Pulizzi’s Blog: Seven Ways to Position Yourself for Unlimited Work

“I don’t hire anyone that doesn’t blog.”

A Brief Guide to World Domination, by Chris Guillebeau (PDF here)

I cited Guillebeau’s personal manifesto as an example of one kind of e-book B2B editors could aspire to.

Book Notes: An Interview with Seth Godin.  (On the publication of Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?.)

“Cogs see a job, linchpins see a platform. Every interaction, every assignment is a chance to make a change, a chance to delight or surprise or to touch someone.”

Start-Up Briefing Media Ltd. Blends Old with New

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Rory Brown: No more holidays.

Rory Brown

It’s almost a new-media axiom that traditional publishers can’t move forward effectively online because they have too much skin in the old-media game. While these B2B publishers have a highly evolved understanding of their markets, their inability to sacrifice the “cash cow in the coal mine” keeps them mired in the past.

Logically, then, the most exciting and successful advances in B2B media should come from those with an understanding of B2B markets but without the old-media burdens. This makes UK-based Briefing Media Ltd., the new start-up recently announced by Rory Brown and Neil Thackray, worth watching.  Both bring years of B2B publishing experience to the task, but without what Brown calls “the legacy issues that many traditional publishers face.” They expect to unveil the first in a series of niche B2B sites later this month.

Neil Thackray

Neil Thackray

A hallmark of Briefing Media’s approach appears to be a blending of old and new, the tried-and-true with the innovative. Thackray describes its method as combining “the latest technology and good old-fashioned market knowledge” to create a mix of aggregated, curated, and original content, organized by semantic algorithms and overseen by an editor.

As one who has worried about the inadequacies of algorithms alone, I’m heartened that Brown and Thackray will be pairing theirs with expert editors. (The first of those editors will be Patrick Smith, aka Psmith, Journalist.) Similarly, I think they’re wise to match their curated third-party content with original work.

I asked Brown by e-mail whether he could answer a few questions about Briefing Media’s strategy.  He was kind enough to supply the following details:

Why do you feel it would be so much harder for legacy publishers to succeed at what you and Neil are undertaking?

This is the classic “I wouldn’t start from here” problem. Traditional publishers generally have a wide range of revenue streams, business models, technology platforms and staff that were established in a very different era of media. They know the world has changed but it is often a difficult and time-consuming process to adjust. New entrants don’t have to deal with most of this legacy.

Neil’s description of this venture suggests that you’re looking to develop multiple and diverse revenue streams. Is that a significant part of the strategy? Do you expect either advertising or subscriptions to play a role? Will one particular source of revenue dominate either initially or long term?

I remember someone saying recently in relation to a future for newspapers that “no one thing will work but lots of things might”. I think this sums up an approach that all media companies need to employ. Initially our sites will concentrate on selling sponsorship, delegate-led events, and high-end research. However, as the business progresses there will be a greater emphasis on subscription content, advertising and lead generation, training, reports, and consultancy. Over time one of those revenue streams might rise to be dominant, but during my whole career in B2B media the most successful brands I have worked on have made money in many diverse ways—whatever the customer needs.

How are you financing this venture?

Neil and myself are the sole investors. Our whole philosophy is to run things as tightly as possible as we establish the business.

What kind of milestones will you use to gauge your progress?

The main metric we will be monitoring in the initial phase is the level of customer registration on our sites. We plan to offer a lot of value for free but will exchange value-add services for customer demographics.

As I understand it, the content for each vertical site will be a blend of curated and original content. Do you have a particular strategy for how the original content will stand out from or enhance the third-party content?

This is an important balance that we have to get right for each site. Hundreds of hours of work goes into building our content sets to ensure that the very best information is sorted and categorized.

Over this base we train our semantic algorithms to provide relevant context and linkages between those pieces of content.

Alongside that base layer we want each of our sites to have a clear voice. A key part of the editor’s role is to find and commission a combination of regular columnists and thought leaders from that industry to write for us. Often these columnists are not journalists but people who work in senior strategic positions within the industries we serve. The expert columns and in-depth, bespoke research reports are a major point of differentiation for us from other trade media.

Each vertical will have one dedicated analyst who “updates and improves the taxonomy and content.” Will that person typically create content as well, or just curate and commission it?

These positions are key hires in each vertical. We look for analysts with deep connections and an in-depth understanding of the major issues faced in their markets. We want people who are also not scared to express a strong opinion or rant occasionally.

Is there any particular model for contributor payment (i.e., are you looking for free content as so many B2B books have done, paying typical freelancer rates, or doing a Demand Media content-marketplace kind of approach)?

This depends on the nature of the content commissioned and the people who are undertaking those tasks. For high-end research we would generally pay for specialist expertise. When we solicit columns from people who are employed in another capacity, then these contributions are not paid for—although those people will join our “faculty” of experts, and we plan to offer a variety of exclusive site benefits as time progresses.

Neil’s description of the triangular semantic technology you’ll use is a bit mysterious, perhaps deliberately so. Is a hypothetical example of how it works possible?

You will probably be familiar with a variety of semantic analysis systems which tag content and provide metadata to add context. We have looked at a few of these in isolation and been generally unimpressed by their results over time. The secret sauce we are using is to have multiple semantic engines configured together and trained over time by industry experts. This provides much greater accuracy of results and makes the system impossible to replicate.

Neil’s analogy of triangulation is taken from his passion for sailing. If you are lost at sea and can see one lighthouse from your boat you know you are somewhere along a line. Two gives you a range of possible intersection points. It is only when you have three or more that you can glean a precise location.

I’m guessing the technology is not homegrown but outsourced. If you do use a provider, can you disclose who it is?

Not at this moment.

Is there a significant element of personalization or social input in the technology?

At the moment no, but as we tag content and build user demographics, the system provides a lot of possibilities for personalization. We can see many future ways of expanding the product offerings over time.

How did you and Neil get together on this venture? Did you meet him initially via work, industry associations, social media?

The business media industry is a fairly small world. I had known of Neil and his various previous companies for many years before we met. We are also both relatively “visible” with blogs about the business media sector and affiliations with trade associations.

In my last year at Incisive Media we both attended an Outsell Leadership Forum and it was clear that we shared a lot of similar views about both the challenges business media would face over the coming years and the opportunities that might provide. Then, when I left Incisive and Neil sold the remaining parts of Nexus Business Media our paths kept crossing as we independently tried to buy our own media assets. We both compared notes about some of the deals we were trying to do and agreed to set up a side project to look at launch ideas. From that Briefing Media Ltd. was born.

Monetize Your Typos

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Portrait by Joi Ito (joi.ito.com), licensed CC-BY

Doctorow: Make money with typos

A while back, I lamented how social media seem to lead inevitably to the decline of editing and proofreading. I was given new hope this weekend, though, while listening to Leo Laporte’s podcast “This Week in Tech.” Towards the end, guest Cory Doctorow, the science fiction writer and Boing-Boing co-publisher, mentioned a publishing project that involved, among other things, offering readers incentives to alert him to typos.

Doctorow’s project, which he’s been documenting in his Publishers Weekly column, is a self-published short story collection called With a Little Help. His “freemium” model includes free e-books and audiobooks, donations, a print-on-demand (POD) paperback, a premium hardcover edition, advertisements, and a commission fee for a new short story.

Since this is a self-published project, Doctorow wants to keep expenses to a minimum, and that means no outlay for proofreading or copyediting. As he points out, the stories were all copyedited and proofread for their original publication in magazines, and his mother, a “king-hell proofer,” will help out. But the POD model offers a third option:

“Now, lots of people have used POD as a way of avoiding a lot of sunk costs in publishing ventures. But I want to see how far I can push it. With my previous books, my readers have sent in typos as they discovered them and I’ve fixed the electronic texts immediately, storing up lists of changes for my publisher to incorporate in future printings. But POD means that I can fix typos as soon as they’re reported, and what’s more, I can add an acknowledgment to the reader who caught it on the page where the correction appears, as a footnote. I have a feeling that readers will happily buy a second copy of the book in order to have a printing in which their name appears.”

As Doctorow put it on TWiT, he’s “monetized typos.”

The result is more likely to be a revenue trickle than a stream, and, if you took it seriously, it would give authors an incentive to include typos, or at least not to look for them too strenuously.

But the more meaningful exchange here is the payment Doctorow offers to his readers. By naming them in footnotes, he is rewarding them for finding errors.

Though it wouldn’t work in many forms of social media, this seems like a good tool for bloggers to employ. Of course, it requires the blogger to care enough to offer such an incentive. That comes naturally to a serious writer like Doctorow, but maybe not to the average blogger. It also requires a thick skin, something many writers manifestly lack.

So, in the spirit of Doctorow’s experimentation, I hereby offer a mention in my blog and a tweet to anyone who finds a typo or other error in my posts. If you’re a blogger, why not do the same?