Emerging Technology in Advertising, Mobile Optimisation, Product Management

It’s no secret that traditional publishing (think print newspaper and magazines) have struggled with the dawn of digital and content being freely available online 24/7. In the same way as the music industry have raced to stop piracy instead of embracing the new revenue models that digital can bring, the publishing industry has been trying to lock consumers into subscription models for news content that they can get online for free elsewhere.

It’s worth noting that our founder’s background (way back in the days of very old Panasonic phones), was journalism. She started off wanting to break into the publishing industry, and learned all she could about their main revenue model: paid for by user, supplemented by advertising.

Back then, news wasn’t freely – in all senses of the word – available online, which meant that consumers were happy to pay the price for the magazine or newspaper and be sold to by advertisers inside. Now that consumers have access to publishers all around the globe, you can be sure that whatever news you are reporting is available elsewhere. So it begs the question: what can you offer your customers that they can’t get elsewhere? Editorial Selection

Now there is so much proliferation of content, it makes the relevant and useful information much harder to find. Enter mobile apps like NYT Now. This was an app launched by the New York Times designed to present you with the most important information, summarized by their editors for only $2 per week. Exclusive Content

Again pioneered by the NYT – New York Times Opinion. They took what was exclusive to them (the opinion pieces written by their editorial staff) and packaged it up in an easy to access format for just $1.50 per week. Integrated Content Content that has a presence in your print edition, on your website and in your app. Not just the same content repackaged for the different device or medium, but actually optimised for the device or medium. For instance, using mobile to its full potential. If you own Vogue, and know that your magazine is most frequently read in a hairdressing salon, then why not put an ad in the print version of the magazine to encourage your user to get their phone out and interact with the advert in order to get free hair product? Or use the app and augmented reality to see what they would look like with a particular model’s hairstyle?   After you have sorted out your content and established what you have that no one else has, how can you keep the advertising dollars rolling in? Pay per Download – just a few cents
Rather than paying on a subscription basis for access to every piece of content on a particular publication, instead pay on a per article basis. There’s a crowd-funding project on Kickstarter just now called Nanotransactions, the idea behind which is to let users pay just a few cents to access the articles they really want to read. Again, this requires good quality journalism and content that the user isn’t going to find elsewhere. Full disclosure: the man behind Nanotransactions, Nick Ross, is a friend of mine. Enhance your Print Edition
As an addition to your print edition, offer your advertisers the opportunity to insert their TVC into the magazine or newspaper. They get to use content they have already created and use it to further improve their brand presence. Increase your Advertising Footprint
Use mobile or tablet to have customers interact with the adverts inside your magazine, and use this to take their details and pass the leads back onto the advertiser, giving them what you’ve never been able to give them before: qualified leads from print advertising.   There is lots of potential out there, but let’s hope that the publishing industry doesn’t go the same way as the music industry.