Publishing technologies are accelerating faster than ever – can we learning anything from legacy media companies about staying ahead of the curve?
Publishing technologies encompass mobile apps, CMSs, multimedia capacity, and more. Much more. With advances coming every week, publishers must maintain a feel for the latest digital tools while staying focused on content creation and opening new revenue streams. Sticking with what has worked for the past five years can often feel like you’re missing out on bigger and better opportunities.
Are you making the best use of publishing technologies? Do you ever wonder how other digital magazines are doing it?
Digiday recently took a look at how six big publishers are handling the tech challenge. In addition, they examine how Time Inc. digital has evolved since spinning off from Time Warner last year. Let’s get right to it this week with some high-quality coverage!
The Personnel That Implements Publishing Technologies
Interesting roundup in Digiday by Lucia Moses that focuses on how digital magazines and other media companies staff for the purposes of publishing technologies.
“We are at the intersection of journalism and engineering,” The Washington Post CRO Jed Hartman told Moses. “Being a great journalist isn’t good enough if you don’t have the engineering to make sure your product is strong enough across all platforms, and that is facilitated by engineering.”
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And how do legacies allocate resources for these teams? Strong digital publishers like The Guardian, for instance?
“The British media company has about 140 full-time product managers, engineers, data analysts and UX experts, said Tanya Cordrey, chief digital officer at Guardian News & Media,” Moses writes. “Comprising about 8 percent of the paper’s staff, they range from newly graduated developers to experienced professionals who have come from other news outlets such as the BBC and The New York Times; technology companies such as Google, Skype and Amazon; and agencies. Cross-functional teams focus on individual areas such as theguardian.com, Guardian Apps, editorial tools and Guardian Membership.”
Highly recommend this piece. Other publishers Moses profiles: Business Insider, Hearst Digital, The Huffington Post, and Time Inc. digital.
How Time Inc. Digital Has Maximized Publishing Technologies
Speaking of Time Inc. digital … what a year they’ve had since breaking off of Time Warner. The outlook wasn’t pretty for the Joe Ripp-led mega-publisher that many observers believed was long past its prime, and things are still rough and tumble – revenue was down 8.7% to $680 million last quarter, for example, Digiday reports – but Time Inc. digital efforts have been dizzying, with new publishing technologies, acquisitions, and products seemingly every week. Will it be enough to save the industry titan? We believe so.
Ricardo Bilton took a look at seven ways Time Inc. is trying to transition from print to multiplatform publishing.
1) Time Inc. digital titles have doubled their traffic.
2) Time Inc. digital will produce 10,000 videos in 2015.
3) Time Inc. digital has cut costs.
4) Time Inc. digital has launched digital-only properties like The Snug.
5) Time Inc. digital has put forward paywalls for online content.
6) Time Inc. digital has made multiple mergers & acquisitions.
7) Time Inc. digital has embraced publishing technologies like a company-wide CMS and e-commerce platform.
Which publishing technologies are you partial to? Let us know in the comments!
To read more about publishing technologies in the news, visit Digiday.
