The publishing King is dead, long live the King

BANGALORE, INDIA: Traditional media houses are losing audiences, reporting losses, firing journalists, closing down brick and mortar set-ups.

Changes in technology are leading a sea change in reader behavior. Younger, emerging and newer readers are culturally shifting to newer forms that are available and easily accessible from anywhere and anytime.

First, world-wide educated population and Internet penetration - both are exploding in growth terms. Devices that allow access to content are increasing tremendously. Devices aka iPad and a host of other Android tablets with sleeker designs turn the most ardent pessimists into adopters.

Smartphone sales with Internet access once again are on an all time high. Bandwidth and technology are increasing ease of creation and distribution of content. Emerging 4G promises speeds that were unheard of. Overall, consumption of content is increasing exponentially.

With this increase in consumption, are readers and consumers of content changing? They sure are.

Passive readers are passe, there are more and more active readers, the highly active ones have turned bloggers and vlogers.

Attracting attention and "viral spread of word". Readers/bloggers today are disrupting traditional media in a digitally, socially enabled and well connected virtual ecosystem. Creation, dissemination, distribution and getting feedback on content has never been so easy.

Which brings us to the next point, what is the price of digital content? Well, the top 10 authors never had it so better despite the falling sales of paperback editions, 5 per cent in 2010 and 23 per cent in 2011.

Stephan King, James Patterson and Stephenie Meyer have gained better thanks to the growing ebook sales.

No one could have predicted the huge gains in YouTube viewership compared to traditional TVs.

Who would have imagined a search company being the biggest advertising revenue earner (eg. Google revenue vs the revenue of top 10 publishing and media houses).

And the big question, who will upset the Apple cart again? Is it going to be Facebook with an emerging 500 million plus subscribers? or a new kid off the block?

As Clay Shirky puts it, "When a 14-year-old can blow up your business in his spare time, not because he hates you but loves you, then you got a problem".

Will this disruption end in the death of traditional media houses?

Does this mean traditional media houses and media agencies are going out of business? Far from it, there have been and will be cultural shifts in human lifetimes and this is yet another.

However, it is exactly this threat of going out of business that forces large media houses to change ways of communicating with communities and going beyond content and monetizing from their communities.

If there is an increase in content consumption, which we have seen is certainly there, then the opportunity to monetize is also here. The key being creation of a set of compelling reasons for the community to spend time with the publishing brand.

Are the big media houses agile enough to bring about this change quickly? Or are the managers too engrossed in pushing the envelope to get his/her quarterly numbers with an attitude of personal interest and survival.

Is the change slow or even worse suffering on lack of strategic direction.

To quote GigaOM's, Om Malik, "When I look at these industries and the failure - or impending failure - of these institutions, I see a fundamental mistake on their part to understand their own core businesses. They fail to see the world in a larger context, and instead, choose to focus on maintaining the status quo. If they took their cue from Apple (everywhere computing) or Amazon (any content anywhere), they could have found answers to their problems. "

So as a publisher and producer of content I can reach my readers in a direct and personal way. The power the reader holds today is unlimited. Content that gives my community ideas and inspiration on personal and professional areas of life and work is read.

It is then forwarded, commented, tweeted, liked and also get into saved folders for future reference. Imagine the life of the one piece of content that spirals up brands and increases viewership by millions.

Here is an Indian example from Sony Music

The New King

If I put myself as a reader - I want content, which makes sense to me. This will be on top of my mind, on my favorite folders. I am compelled to read and know from the newsletters that I mark out as a priority for me.

I get my complete doze of content in all forms including digital and I am very happy with the variety and ease of access. I can read my favorite things, listen to music I love, watch the videos that I enjoy and discuss it with my friends on the social network.

With new apps like flipboard news 360 and on iPad, I can customize the content I want to read from a huge repository of content brands. I just have to say what I am interested in and then choose the area and let the auto aggregate stuff I love every time, I log in.

My consumption has increased, my time digitally has gone up further. In future, I imagine content being delivered in smaller and smarter devices based on your request aka " Apple Siri".

I can carry my television through a pair of goggles and watch my favorite movie, talk out my comment to be on social network. I can enlist to the training programs that make great sense to me, I can access universities that could only teach limited students, I can debate with editors on their views. I the reader, am the king and Technology, my henchman.

(Anil Kumar Ravindran, senior vice president, CyberMedia)

*Image Source: Nielsen Media Research, Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, Audit Bureau of Circulations.