Rethinking Print Media’s Role in the Digital Era
State of Digital Publishing
A new publication and community for digital media and publishing professionals, in new media and technology.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
By?Andrew Kemp, Managing Editor at SODP
Echo chambers, though widely acknowledged, often remain unnoticed in our personal lives.
Take, for example, the notion that digital media’s rise is ushering in print’s inevitable end. Perhaps not dead, but it’s certainly on life support.
It’s a perception that tends to be reinforced by stories such as The Guardian’s coverage of the closure of one of the UK’s two large-scale printers.
Stop the Press
German-backed Prinovis’ closure, first reported in November, leaves London-based rival Walstead printing nine of the UK’s top 10 magazines.
Reading such stories makes me question whether I’m right in arguing that print still has a place in the wider media landscape.
Still, looking into Prinovis’ closure reveals a slightly more interesting narrative than the “print is dying” trope.
It seems Prinovis used rotogravure printers, compared with the far more widespread web offset printers used by Walstead. I won’t pretend I understand much about the mechanical details of each, my office printer is nightmare enough, but there does seem to be a noticeable cost difference between the two technologies.
Number Crunching
Reports dating back more than two decades point to gravure being less economical than web offset, becoming cost-efficient for catalogs with 48 pages or less at print runs of 1.25-1.5 million.
We should be able to agree that print publishing is contracting. However, the pace at which it’s declining, and its long-term outlook, is another matter. For example, PwC data suggests that the print industry will dominate the revenue share of major published media sectors in the short to mid-term.
Indeed, print circulation and print advertising combined account for 80% of all industry revenues, and PwC forecasts that this will only slip to 75% by 2026.
So, what does this mean within the context of the Prinovis-Walstead narrative?
GOOGLE NEWS SEO GUIDE 2023 IS HERE!
Google News should be the focus of any digital media and content publisher, given the traffic it drives to news sites every month.
It’s been some years since Google last provided a news traffic analysis, but in 2020 it said it sent “Google users to news sites 24 billion times” every month. This number is a clear indication that publishers need to be trying to rank higher. In fact, the search giant cited Deloitte as valuing this traffic for large publishers at $0.04-0.07 per click.
Given the multitude of changes since its launch in 2002, however, ranking in Google News search results requires a greater degree of expertise and finesse than ever before. For publishers, that means staying abreast of, and applying, the most up-to-date search engine optimization (SEO) practices.
Read on to learn more about Google News SEO best practices and why they need to be at the forefront of every editorial strategy.
领英推荐
Thanks to the growing momentum of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the digital publishing ecosystem is undergoing a seismic shift. These tools have the potential to upend how content creators work entirely.
At the same time, as more and more AI content is published, there’s a genuine concern that stories could become more vanilla and less personal. However, this should create an opportunity for publishers looking to stand out to create a emotional connection with their audience.
User-generated content (UGC) is one way to offer that personal touch. Moreover, search engines may place higher value on UGC as the flow of AI-generated content picks up pace. One can’t deny that AI-driven technologies will influence the digital publishing trends of the future, but it’s essential not to overlook the power of a human connection.
Indeed, of UGC’s many benefits, social proof, community building and visitor engagement have enormous potential for publishers. These benefits have already been well-documented for brands, with research showing that more than 70% of consumers prioritize consumer-generated content over ads.
Join us as we explore how incorporating UGC can benefit a publisher’s content and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.
Push notifications assist publishers in optimizing key performance indicators (KPIs) — such as total time reading — by informing users about the content pieces they are most likely to engage with based on their past reading habits. At the same time, this process improves the user experience (UX), freeing the reader from having to manually hunt down the content that will most interest them.
Additionally, notifications about new features, premium content, exclusive offers or special events can effectively drive website and app users back to the platform, increasing retention and fostering loyalty.
This strategic use of push notifications is known as push notification marketing — enabling publishers to keep their users engaged, retain them for longer durations and transform them into loyal readers.
And it doesn’t stop there; notification marketing allows publishers to gently nudge users towards desirable actions such as sharing content, signing up for a newsletter or subscribing to premium content.
Now it’s time to dive into the 10 simple ways for publishers to build a robust push notification marketing strategy, ensuring consistent value for their audience while boosting key business metrics.