Digital Publishing Strategy Academy Classroom

Rocks:
- Video/Mobile TV
- Social networks
- Games
- Music
- Communication

Flops:
- MVNOs
- Mobile communities
- Alternative search engines

What Rocks
- Accessibility / reach / choice
- Speed
- Low cost of delivery / access
- Possibility of participation / interactions
- High level of competition

Flops
- Information overloaded / clutters (100 unread RSS feeds)
- Multitasking
- Junk content domination (celebrities / sex content etc.)
- Tyranny of clicks - clickable is more important than important
- Google effect (headlines written for SEO etc.)

Rocks:
1. Internet is much faster than other media
2. Publisching in web' sites is more effective - audience have still new info, not on defined time - like TV news
3. Internet is for readers more communicative - they can respond, publish their opinion, comment
4. Search engines! All other media are like ant-hill without signpost
5. Worldwide audience - world is much smaller then before

Flops:
1. Many lies and semi-truth information (it is dangerous especially for young people/children), or danger information for children
2. Many sites never updated, or are down
3. Wrong links or emails or nobody answer our emails
4. Social networks don't exist, it is only marketing, and the true is that people have sometimes the same opinion or aims
5. SPAM

LOL, thanks Lee

One of the things I love about the web is that there’s always a niche within a niche, just waiting to be discovered. The social networking explosion in the last few years is a wave every classic media publisher aspires to ride, but few actually make it in practice. On our advanced Digital Publishing Strategy sessions we coach experienced online publishers about how to take this further: microblogging, Twitter, the shambles of navigating Google-juice, and building those links in and out of the feeds and mini feeds on Facebook (check out the stuff they announced today about ad sponsored linkages if you get a chance)…

…but it’s the stuff that takes you by surprise that I really love, because it challenges the norms and reminds you to be humble; both in your wisdom about the market and the richness of human culture. Which is what I’m thinking about when you mention dogs.
On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog, right? ;-) …okay, tired joke, but the idea of a social network for dogs a few years ago felt like it was really pushing at the limits of credibility: it would have been a darn brave publisher to put that business plan into their boss. Enter, http://www.dogster.com/ - and you don’t need to click to know it’s alive and well and full of animated, dopey eyed friends just waiting to get their screenshots downloaded. My guess is that it’s probably more about dating for their owners than being a Match.com for canines, but a reminder that what might be kitsch to one person (I break out in a rash even thinking about pets) is the whole wide world to another.

(Before you rush to register the URL, yep, http://www.catster.com has also gone).
Anyways, chew on this (serious point): the smart money that is after the global publishing play will ride roughshod over national titles and interests. That’s why the stakes for classic publishers are getting raised so high. I love magazines and I’ve loved writing for dozens of them over the years, as well as littering my living room with them, but I can’t help think that a showdown is coming. And if I were in the pet magazine world right now I’d be doing anything to get those cute little creatures animated like crazy. I’d be wanting them YouTubed, Flickr’d and all over my user-gen’d, socially networked, personally profiled pages right now.

Where does it end? - A blog for every dog.
…And then on the internet, finally, everyone will know if you’re a…

[Hey, I’m just wishing I could have joined you guys in Jo’burg. We should look at some advanced product coaching workshops sometime.]

Hey Danny,
Puts a new twist on 'viral marketing' - they're spreading everywhere! :-)

Hey Lee; loving the comments about animated dogs - I'm sensing you had a particular site in mind ;-)

Rocks
1. Connecting – information, people, places, events
2. Learning – a blink leads to a click leads to knowledge and entertainment
3. Taking on the world – from the security and anonymity of your own home
4. If they’re buying you’re selling – somebody somewhere out there wants what you’ve got
5. Perfection – Ah…crisp lines, precise uncluttered navigation, soft palette, detailed content – when it works, it works.

Flops
1. Dropping the ball - broken links, out of date sites and blogs, no responses…
2. Working the system too well - Wading through the exact same article on ten different sites, link farms…
3. 'Download this screensaver', 'Congratulations you’ve just won', 'You’ve been selected to participate in this survey'… for the 4th time that day!
4. OTT – scrolling down a never-ending page of flashing animated dogs
5. Just enough – ignoring the digital fabulous in favour of a polite nod at the future

Rocks

1. Communities: We build it, they write it
2. Social networks: They share the content
3. Email: Send it out, watch the traffic spike
4. Search – same as above
5. The best stuff (eventually) gets to the top of the pile

WEBSITES

Rocks

1. Templates: I can flick the switch and re-brand my website straight away
2. Copy & Paste: Anyone can learn to publish
3. Digital feeds: I can squirt a stream of articles and headlines anywhere
4. Updates: As the news changes, the reports change
5. Analytics: I know what’s read and who is the popular writer ;-)

Flops

1. Technologies that don’t glue together
2. Technologies that don’t meet expectations
3. Technologies that don’t work
4. Technologies that don’t come with good support
5. Technologies that don’t continue (firm goes bust etc)
(...and the technology sales reps that got me to buy it!)

WEB PUBLISHING

Rocks
Yeah, agree with the ones above. So a couple of points are similar.

1. Speed to publish: I write, it goes up.
2. Reader feedback: They talk, I listen. (Try doing that one in a magazine!)
3. Search and research: How did I work before Google?!
4. Anyone can publish: Fortunately for us, only anyone good gets listened to.
5. Community stuff: Getting participation

Flops
(Bit harder, this one)

1. Sites that are down
2. Sites nobody updates
3. Sites nobody responds to when I email
4. Email publications nobody responds to when I email
5. The techy stuff I just can’t get my head around (as a web publisher)

INTERNET PUBLISHING

To get you started in this classroom, as the designer of this digital publishing strategy training programme, I thought it worth sharing some of the things I feel ‘Rock’ in web publishing. Whether you are on our one week residential programme for internet publishers or just on a half day intensive Academy, look at the ideas here and think about whether the point from other people could be applied to your site.

A FEW OF MY ‘ROCKS’
1. Finding stuff, fast: Providing the information you’re looking for is there, then the speed of getting to the exact bit of information is so fast and efficient that it changes the way we think of media.
2. Finding stuff, anywhere: Never having to get to a shop, your office or study to get the information you want.
3. Sharing things with friends, effortlessly: Sharing a link lets two people enjoy the same content experience the moment the content has been created.
4. Democratising access: Letting anyone have a voice and regardless of their opinions or views, have the ability to be heard.
5. Saving paper, saving our future: This isn’t a cheap ploy to jump on the ‘green’ bandwagon. I’ve been a passionate environmentalist all my life, and yet we all know the products of the media and publishing industry generate vast amounts of waste. Think of the junk mail that still lands on your doormat before going straight to the bin – and then think of digital communications shifts us towards a zero waste society.

AND A FEW FLOPS
1. Broken links: Every site has them, everyone gets hacked off by them.
2. Navigation that fails to navigate: Lack of links, lack of clear links, or just clearly lacking
3. Carrying baggage: Magazine and newspaper sites that are still trying not to be good enough to undermine the sales of the print titles.
4. Link farms: Those annoying sites that look like they’ll have just what you want in the preview on Google and then turn out to be just filled with junk links.
5. Inconsistency: Changing the layouts and structures across the site too much