A study by Deloitte, commissioned by the UK Association of Online Publishers (AOPUK) out this week finds UK publishers in an upbeat mood about the opportunities the web is presenting them and learning to live in a flatter environment alongside bloggers, online communities and social networks.
It’s noteworthy that three companies inspire the efforts of UK publishers in their online efforts: the BBC, the Guardian and Amazon. They would do well to also to look at the US site CNet which has been working in all sorts of new ways, blurring the lines between audience and content creators, plugging into new distribution networks, like the many aggregators and Digg. Heaven knows they probably weave also sorts of devilishly clever SEO strategy and techniques into the site too…
The report distills five principles which Deloitte thinks will guide the future success of online publishers:
- Make it simple: Develop and clearly articulate a simple overarching strategy that sets out how your offline, online and mobile offerings interplay. Ensure it delivers incremental value to customers
- Know your customer: Get to know your customers and grow with them. Don’t ignore the young – they are your future
- Profit from personalisation: Personalise to provide what customers want at the right price and they will come. Don’t be afraid of breaking your traditional one-to-many publishing model
- If you can’t beat them, join them: Embrace those who won’t opine about or contribute to your product; they will ultimately enhance and support your brand
- Fee or free: Look beyond the printed word and focus on the brand at the centerpiece for generating revenue.
Sounds like great advice, to which I would add three points that I have been mulling over:
- Rethink distribution – see my comments about CNet above. Publishers need to be thinking about every possible way of making your content attractive to different aggregators and networks, not just publishing it and pushing it out via email and RSS (though those are essential).
- Have a strategic view on social media and SEO – if you’re just using the latest fad or SEO ploy you’re keeping up just, but may be behind the curve.
- Think about what living in a network means. I think content producers should base their strategy on being useful to the network, providing the best content in the best way, the best services and tools – become a good network citizen.
If anyone who is a member of AOP or works on this at Deloitte would like to share a copy of the report, I’d be really grateful.
Via: AOPUK
Tags: UK, publishing, publisher, magazines, web, websites, deloitte, AOP, AOPUK, distribution, newspapers
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