Out of the Dust: Publishing multimedia in the publishing industry

As a former Multimedia Director for a publishing company I thought I’d make my first post here related to that experience. I initiated and spent two years growing a new department within a company with several magazines in the B2B space.

Anyone in B2B publishing, or any magazine or journal publishers for that matter, already knows how tough it’s been over the last year or so as the economy slides into the abyss. Depending on the industries served, some publishing companies have had a tougher time than others.

One of the problems is letting go of out-dated thinking and processes. While some places may have a ‘top-down’ problem, others have leadership that actually do think in terms of the 21st century and new media opportunities. But they are most likely the exception. Part of the problem is one of a slow-to-change work culture. There are many (great) veteran editors and sales people in publishing companies near and far that have held on tightly to the same way of doing things; editors used to only have to work on a print version of a magazine and sales made fairly easy commissions on recurring print advertising. Now editors frequently have several outlets to satisfy (print, web, podcast interviews, webcasts and, yes, videos) while sales people have to sell sponsorships for these new content vehicles. Sales people also need to understand these new technologies to convincingly sell them.

What these veterans have going for them are their established relationships and, of course, knowledge. While it could be safely argued that experience and relationships cultivated over many years are invaluable, business today needs to be nimble and adaptive to change.

One could also argue that, “hey, it’s the economy, stupid”. Well, maybe it’s the New Economy. Yes, the economy has had an impact on spending across the board. However, there are still companies that have budgets to spend. They just want to spend it wisely. They want to know what they can do with limited resources to obtain the highest return – how they get the most eyeballs on their new products and services and actually measure it. Companies with advertising budgets, while still spending on print, are increasingly moving away from the print vehicle to digital forms of ads. One reason is that they have many more ways of analyzing metrics for each ad compared with virtually none in the print space. It’s also generally cheaper to advertise digitally than it is in print. And, you can’t put a video of your product or a podcast in a printed magazine.

As I mentioned, I believe that there are those that “get it” and are doing their best to work with these new technologies, seeing them as opportunities and not just extra work or a hindrance to their jobs. However, it’s not just about ‘coming around’ some day. It’s about being able to anticipate what the next ‘thing’ is and jump on it and productize it. That’s what the customer wants: a way to separate them from their competition. And we can’t forget about those that actually consume the content that ‘hopefully’ is sponsored. They expect it to be delived in the newest ways and will often go elsewhere to find it in that form, regardless of those that deliver it. Social media is just one example of this.

I believe the publishing companies that operate more from this approach, being nimble, able to anticipate new ways of doing business and offering clients more knowledgeable and cost-effective options, will be standing when the economy finally does rebound. But if companies don’t change the culture within, they may be amongst those left in the dust.

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