Two stories on the Mediaweek site today perfectly illustrate the complexity and confusion in the publishing world.
At 7.30am it was suggested that Bauer Media (Disclosure – I worked for Bauer Media/Emap until earlier this year) would be reviving The Face, with an all-digital proposition one of the possibilities. While I’m not alone in wondering why The Face would be picked, considering the recent closure of Arena, any re-launch is a rare occurrence. And particularly a digital one. Bauer Media, by the way, has officially denied any such plans.
Then at 4.10pm it was revealed that John Menzies Digital has folded. Which means the end of magazinesondemand.co.uk and white label versions for WHSmith and Asda. The service had allowed readers to download over 100 magazines in digital editions. Paid Content has some more context around the decision, which closes the business after just 14 months.
So we’ve gone from a possible digital relaunch of an iconic title to the loss of over 100 digital editions in the space of a day.
What this hopefully illustrates better than anything is that the future of publishing or broadcasting any content is full of uncertainty at the moment. And there is no ‘right answer’ to how best to transform for the future.
Actually that’s a lie.
The right answer is to try various ideas, keep optimising them, and count a reasonable time span in years rather than months.
I believe it is very important to be comparing apples with apples, what has been commented on above are 2 completely different models, the Menzies operation was based on subscription revenue based on people buying digital editions where as any digital edition only offering is likely to be advertising revenue led. (similar to Monkey Mag etc)
Based on the massive increase of both Digital Editions and people reading them .(certainly the case at http://www.yudu.com) it is more likely that the business model and monetization methods should be considered – rather than the actual digital channel/technology.
I believe it is very important to be comparing apples with apples, what has been commented on above are 2 completely different models, the Menzies operation was based on subscription revenue based on people buying digital editions where as any digital edition only offering is likely to be advertising revenue led. (similar to Monkey Mag etc)
Based on the massive increase of both Digital Editions and people reading them .(certainly the case at http://www.yudu.com) it is more likely that the business model and monetization methods should be considered – rather than the actual digital channel/technology.