Digitization: With these 6 principles of success, publishers survive digital disruption

No one in German publishers is eagerly awaiting the latest figures for IVW. There is more of a certain tension, because, as is well known, the most important values have only had one direction for years.

I am firmly convinced that those who can see digitization as a challenge and not as a problem will stop the downward economic trend.

Anyone who is brave enough is digitization not as a threat, but rather as an opportunity to see and derives the right principles from this, he still has all the reins in his own hands. Especially in an environment that is still strongly characterized by adherence to the status quo.

In the following sections, I will provide you with six principles that help publishers take full advantage of the opportunities offered by digitization:

1. Reader focus as top priority
2. multichannel Is the key
3. Specialize
4. It's just the content that counts
5. Quality can cost something
6. Know your users!

1 Reader focus as top priority

Learning from Amazon means learning to win. The company continues its Customers at the center of all his efforts. Smooth ordering processes, individualized customer contact through product recommendations and newsletters, goodwill after purchase. Amazon is constantly analyzing its customers' data and tailoring content to their preferences.

And with very good reasons. Because the loyal customer who has remained loyal to his bank, insurance company or newspaper for many years no longer exists in this form.

Why Very simple. Competitive offers are often a mouse click or tap away. The reader needs arguments to come back and wants to be conquered again every day.

In this context, publishers like to refer to the quality of the journalistic offerings. But that should no longer be enough. The speech of Quality journalism dates back to the time when the publishing industry wanted to differentiate itself from blogs and other news sources.

Readers are now likely to assume that online work is just as careful and of high quality.

What is particularly important in digital times is a clear focus on a target group whose wishes and expectations must be addressed. Personalization is the lever here.

The best offer is what the reader thinks was made especially for them. The digital tools offer the options for achieving 1:1 communication with the reader. In this way, every reader becomes their own editor-in-chief.

Precise target groups and a clear focus on topics provide the basis for achieving this goal. New technical options are then based on this.

Figures and analyses are becoming even more important for publishers. Did the reader like an article? Then draw conclusions and offer relevant additional content.

Systems based on machine learning can further refine insights. In the end, it is there again, the bond between medium and user.

2 Multichannel is key

Users' media consumption is fragmenting. You read, watch videos or listen to podcasts. At first glance, the diversity of genres and channels appears to be an obstacle on the way to a digital strategy.

In fact, it offers you more journalistic freedom.

Instead of long tutorials, users feel informed more quickly with a video clip. And a podcast is better at conveying the atmosphere during an interview or debate. So far so clear.

Publishers must adapt to these changes in usage habits. Dr. Ruth Betz, at Funke media group responsible for digital transformation, formulated it in the iJnotes podcast like this: “We don't think in terms of devices anymore. We're thinking in terms of readers now.”

In this context, it is less important whether the media company focuses on a full range of services or on the digital world. multichannel corresponds to the spirit of the times and the behavior of consumers.

This applies to trade, banking and journalism. A multichannel approach requires creativity and a willingness to experiment. And a technical solution that makes it easier to implement ideas.

3 Specialize

Anyone who wants to publish in high quality for “everyone” about “everything” has a hard time. At this point, let me draw on an analogy with trade again.

Away from Amazon, there are successful online shopsthat are in the black. Question: What is the one thing you all have in common? They are highly specialized.

Every publisher must find out in which area their specialization can lie. This can be the (hyper) local or even a specialist topic.

As a medium, you must give the user a reason every day to find out more from you and not elsewhere. Because, for example, he only finds the best industry news from you, which will help him get ahead in his career. Or just get tips from you that he doesn't get elsewhere or because you classify facts and trends in a particularly understandable way.

A terrific Example of reader focus, data analysis, and specialization Is the lighthouse below the media houses that New York Times.

The publisher determines the user's location in order to then offer the user relevant news and articles. There are special subscriptions aimed at puzzle enthusiasts.

And, also a very important point, the editors maintain close personal contact with readers via social media. There, for example, people regularly ask what users are interested in. Customers thus get the impression that a medium is being produced here that takes their wishes seriously.

Skeptics like to argue that the market in the USA is bigger, which is why it is pointless to compare the digital revenues of the New York Times with those of German publishers. However, the NYT not only focuses on topics, it really puts the reader at the center of its work. Modern and data-driven.

4 Only content counts

Unfortunately, publishing houses often get in their own way when it comes to digitization and make the same avoidable mistakes over and over again.

Mistake number 1: Page views as the main goal

In January 1996, a certain wrote Bill Gates in a highly acclaimed essay: “Content is the area where I expect a lot of the big money to be earned on the Internet in the future, just like with television.” Mind you, that was in 1996.

Anyone who does not deliver on the promise of “content is king” in their strategy may initially be pleased with high page views.

However, this does not contribute to sustainably building up a readership. On the contrary, a look at the statistics is likely to show a high bounce rate.

This also happens when a simple list article is distributed over various sub-pages in the form of a lengthy series of pictures. Although this is good for the statistics, it wastes users' time.

Also the term of Clickbait has long since left the publishing houses. Perhaps not every user knows its exact meaning yet, but probably already knows the mechanism of generating clicks behind it.

Mistake number 2: Wrong production strategy

In many companies, there is still a clear orientation, which is either “Online First” or “Print First.” This does not do justice to actual usage patterns for a long time.

Whoever takes this strategy to the extreme is downgrading a channel to a dinghy that appears careless and neglected. For example, if energy flows exclusively into the online presence, there are too few resources left to provide longer analyses in print or content that did not exist online. The reverse is also true.

Therefore, a system must be at the center of content production that allows employees to focus on contentwithout burdening them with too much technology.

Media-neutral production offers the freedom to publish content on the channel that seems to be the most appropriate.

With our Multichannel Publishing Hub, by the way, it is child's play to create structured and media-neutral content. Find out more now.

5 Quality can cost something

The majority of publishers in Germany started with their first digital offerings just as the Internet was becoming a mass phenomenon.

In particular due to the lack of technical billing systems and due to the strategic requirement to establish reach, Content migrated to the web free of charge. That went well until sales from the print sector went down.

The claim that paywalls cannot work in Germany is false. This is shown time and again by the successes of supraregional media and specialist offerings.

Whether individual retrieval, such as with LaterPay, a monthly subscription, a combination of different approaches or an innovative dynamic paywall like the Neue Zürcher Zeitung And that Wall Street Journal already use. The right path to your own success must Find out each publisher for yourself, step by step.

Anyone who focuses on their readers and offers them decisive added value is also proverbially more valuable to them.

Digitalization also offers an additional option to tap into new sources of revenue. For example, by developing new formats. Digital content is more agile, developments can be brought to market and tested much faster than was possible in pure print times.

Thematic newsletters, which regularly provide subscribers with in-depth information on a specific topic, are a great example. The latest news, which is distributed to users via messenger, is another.

I am convinced that every publisher has a potentially huge treasure that just needs to be unearthed. Because with every interaction between users, the publisher gains data. Information that he can use to develop target group-specific forms of advertising, among other things. The rule here is: Creativity, lateral thinking and innovative business development prevail.

6 Know your users!

Data is at the core of digitization. Digital business models are unimaginable without data analyses.

In order to be able to define your target group, you first need to know who they actually are. In many publishers, however, this information lies dormant in different data silos.

That is why publishers need systems that break down such silos and use modern technologies such as artificial intelligence to analyze the information. Recently, in this context, Ranga Yogeshwar with the statement: “Europe is still sleeping” even for great attention.

Data analysis requires effort, especially at the beginning, and sometimes unpopular decisions are absolutely necessary. For example, when it becomes apparent that publishing IT, which has grown over decades, is no longer able to meet modern requirements.

This is underlined by the low competence score in the area of customer analysis in a recent Survey by BrandLab.

However, it is worth the effort, because machine-aided analyses are not only faster, but also open up new perspectives. For example, you gain access to user segments that would otherwise remain undiscovered.

With every post, every click and every app call, users leave behind a lot of information that reveals something about their preferences and current interests.

If it is possible to react to this in real time by reordering and grouping content, this greatly increases the relevance of the medium for the user. Artificial intelligence is the driver here for greater personalization of the offering.

I would like to conclude this section with what I think is a very appropriate quote from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella: "Every company is a software company. You need to start thinking and acting like a digital company. It's no longer just about procuring and deploying a solution. It's not just about a simple software solution. It's about thinking about your own future as a digital enterprise."

Conclusion

The internet, and with it digitalization, will not simply disappear again. That's the way it is with radical advances in history.

German publishing houses are still in the midst of a disruptive change. Of course, this doesn't just affect the publishing and media industry. With a few exceptions, it affects almost all of them. The challenges are the same.

In the meantime, there are many positive examples and promising approaches that are encouraging. A wealth of ideas, a high standard of content quality coupled with modern technology are guaranteed to reward those companies that optimistically face up to the challenges with good reason.

And one final comment: if there are still employees with the job title "digital" in your company, you are most likely not yet a digital company.

Do you have any other ideas regarding the challenge of digitalization? We would love to hear them.

Please feel free to contact us here.

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