I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a conversation that goes roughly like this.
He: “You should move your successful print something to this shiny new digital something.”
Me: “Is anybody making money doing that?”
He: “I’m not sure.”
Then when you do the research you realize the answer is “No.”
Publishers continue to be distracted by Shiny Things and forget the very basics of publishing, which is that your job is to provide something of value to a discreet audience.
“Something of value” means it has to solve a problem or scratch an itch, while “discreet audience” means a group of people you can target that has the need you’re trying to solve.
If I have a need, the delivery method is far less important than the fact that you’re meeting my need.
“Let’s move this thing onto this other thing because it’s cool” is baby talk, and needs to be recognized as such.
Obviously there is a digital revolution going on. Of course there are a lot of new opportunities on digital devices.
That does not mean that everything can or should go digital.
A cell phone app that tracks where you’ve been jogging, or tells you where there’s a good draft porter to be found in walking distance, is a glorious thing. It provides something of value to a discreet audience.
But moving something to a smart phone or a tablet does not necessarily make it better or more convenient, and it does not magically create an audience.
I run into this from magazine people the most.
“You should be on all the digital newsstands.”
Really now. I know it’s what all the cool kids are doing, but what is the chance of success from doing that?
If I had $100K to spend, which is more likely to give me a better return — (1) a really intensive effort to change my print content so that it meets the actual needs of my existing subscribers, or (2) making what I have do cool stuff on an iPad?
It may well be that print will be gone X years from now. (X is almost certainly ten times larger than you think it is.) But it seems clear to me that investing in digital publishing is almost certainly going to yield lower dividends than investing in a better renewal series, or any of ten other publishing fundamentals.