Here’s the problem: Digital publications — initially seen as the great hope for the print industry in the 21st century —are not helping publishers retaining their existing subscribers. And, certainly, they are not bringing them success with new audiences.
Why? The truth is that most publishers are simply replicating their print magazines online, and don’t adjust content and format to meet the complex set of expectations consumers have of digital publications.
Houzz is an excellent example of what creative offerings can be provided once you move over to a digital format. Houzz offers added value that goes well beyond what readers receive from a printed magazine.
With over 25 million users and 4.5 million photos (uploaded by professionals), Houzz is a platform that provides practical tools for home remodeling and design. It connects visitors with architects and designers whose style they like while allowing them to purchase the products that are displayed. On Houzz, visitor can create a kind of “wish list” for their home remodeling project that’s made up of images uploaded by professionals, and each image is marked clearly with the professional’s business name. Visitors can also read up about different professionals by reading customer reviews.
These are the sort of interactive and innovative services that people are looking for in a digital format, and magazines that want to succeed in the new era are going to need to think out of the box and generate new online formats and services that attract and retain readers.
Most publishers measure success in terms of subscriptions, and while this traditional payment model works for print magazines, it’s not the ticket to success for online formats, where consumers are used to finding content that’s available free of charge.
Can digital publishers offer their content for free? Of course, they can, but it’s a huge change. It involves exploring, defining and developing alternative revenue streams.
Digital publishing is not the only industry that’s needed to re-think its business model because of the wide-ranging impact of the Internet. The music industry is another such example. A few years ago, free downloads and live streaming revolutionized how people accessed music and, as a result, the industry was forced to make some major shifts in how it operates.
Today, the music industry works completely differently from the traditional model. While it’s true that music can be downloaded online for free, other, newer areas have been developed that do bring in revenue.
For example, Spotify, which provides access to millions of ad-free songs all from one convenient place, offers a premium (paid) subscription-based service that is growing rapidly: As of March 2016, Spotify stated that they had 30 million paying subscribers worldwide, up from 20 million paying subscribers in June 2015. Additional sources of revenue for the music industry include limited collectors’ editions of CDs (sold at premium prices), and live music festivals, which are becoming increasingly popular.
Digital publishers will need to find their own way through to profitability in the current age of the Internet, since what works in one industry probably doesn’t translate smoothly into other areas. But the bottom line is that in order to succeed and grow, the digital publishing industry needs to free itself of the old models and come up with something it’s never done before.
Meet Us
