There is a vast digital audience waiting for your content.

For many publishers the move to a fully integrated print and digital workflow is overwhelming. To create an environment where it is no longer print first is both technically and culturally daunting. The idea of creating articles that can flow into the various output channels is not new however. It’s true that the digital output channels continue to grow and change but the concept remains the same.

Create a well-written story with beautiful images, package them up and deliver to print, website, mobile devices and social/media channels. Easy, right? Well; no. The expense of getting people to do this work is often too costly given the limited financial returns at present. The fully automated solutions are still not entirely here and have a hefty price tag associated. So whilst you wait for the cheap fully automated solution or set about building your own answers the consumer audience is becoming disconnected from your content.

You surely recognise that your new audience will no longer put extra effort into finding specific branded content. If publishers don’t put their content into the channel where their audience live they might as well not exist. A feed into Facebook and Twitter is a good start but this is not the whole answer, not by a long way. The magazine media audience is much wider than this, they live in an increasingly diverse digital world, choosing the community environment that best suits them Instagram, Tumblr, Pintrest Snapchat for sure, but many hundreds of other tailored areas too.

So how to reach this wide audience?

The big solution to digital publishing is often discussed. Publishers will look at solutions used by their peers or decide it’s time to take control and bring this in-house. I have been in those positions. Play safe with what everybody else is doing, take a risk with some unknown company or grasp the nettle and build a bespoke solution. The safe solution inevitably is a broad solution for many types of situations, which usually means compromise at some point, and inevitably in the area you care about most. The unknown company might disappear as quickly as it appeared and the bespoke solution sets out to give you exactly what you want, but scope-creep and a rapidly changing environment will often bend the project out of shape before it’s complete and then there is the cost and time. So what is a publisher to do?

Plan long term but act right now.

Find a strategic partner or more likely partners that meet your immediate needs. The old idea that you will find one solution that solves all your problems is likely a thing of the past. Make sure your list of requirements is valid. You want your stories delivered to print, web, mobile, social and media channels etc. If you can’t find one partner who will do all of these things then choose two or more. You might even get them to work together on your behalf.

The important aspect here is that you get your content in front of that vast digital audience as soon as possible and start learning what works and what doesn’t. Keep what works and build on it whilst continuing to experiment with new approaches and new channels as they open up.

Magazine media content as a whole is being consumed in greater quantities year on year, up 10% according to Magazine Media 360. With print still declining and websites static the growth is mobile and social. Find your partners work together and get your content into the widest number of digital communities as possible.
Don’t wait, because your audience never will.

Sean Briggs – Creative Workflows Ltd.