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Beyond Rich Data: Servicing Business
Markets through Enterprise and Media Content Services |
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27 February 2006 |
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As the call for more "rich data" in online business
publications comes to the fore, many publishers are left
wondering how they will be able to transform their
businesses into operations that can provide business
content solutions instead of just text, graphics and ads.
This daunting proposition becomes more formidable yet when
one realizes how publishers who have embraced rich data
aggressively are penetrating key accounts at the enterprise
level as well as through their media properties. But
despair not, o business publisher, there are many different
ways to play the rich media game. Read on to find some that
might be right for you. |
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Many publishers of business
magazines and journals are beginning to wake up to the
opportunities afforded by what American Business Media terms
rich data. Put
in simple terms, rich data is the effort by business magazine
publishers to go beyond mere text and graphics in their online
products and to use technology to provide more sophisticated business
content solutions for their audiences.
Some magazine publishers have been aggressive in developing
rich data products and are already reaping the rewards of
combining traditional editorial output with content and
services that solve specific business needs in their readership
base. Many others, though, are just beginning to wake up to the
shifting publishing environment being triggered by rich data
initiatives and trying to get their hands around what it really
means for their businesses.
As
Shore affiliate Russell Perkins notes there is reason to
think that rich data offers many of these just-getting-on-board
publishers reason to be enthusiastic about the future of B2B
magazine publishing. Squeezed between stagnating print revenues
and equally tepid returns from content licensing via
subscription databases B2B publishers have little choice but to
push out on their own and find more effective online value
propositions for their audiences in this era of
The New Aggregation. But while there are some compelling
examples of rich data working well with target audiences such
as McGraw-Hill's
AviationNow portal and ALM's family of
Law.com
portals these are also examples of how rich data may leave many
smaller publishers with limited resources stuck in their
blocks. When you have the muscle to be a "category killer" for
a particular market, vertically or horizontally, it's far
easier to come up with a technology-driven strategy that will
address a wide array of business intelligence requirements.
Looking at the
recent Dow Jones reorg as a template for changing
traditional business content marketing, a truly complete
approach to rich data also requires the realization that the
greatest returns require both a traditional media approach to
sales and a consideration of how to sell to and support
enterprises. Business solutions that live in a media portal are
one thing: business solutions that integrate with portals and
software applications living on a client's intranet, extranet
or desktop are quite another. And yet business publishers
developing rich data products must succeed in both
enterprise and media environments to deliver the most value to
their users and advertisers.
All this may seem like a tall order for many business
publishers, but increasingly it's the order of the day. Here
are a few ideas as to what business publishers must bear in
mind as they approach the full range of rich data challenges:
- Look at total business needs, not just business
intelligence. It's a step forward for many publishers to
be looking beyond "the book" and to consider how online
buying guides and other rich data services can add value. But
oftentimes it's several steps beyond that outlook to get to
the real business problems that your audiences need addressed
through complete business solutions. Publishers such as
McGraw-Hill and Reed Elsevier have become very adept at
learning about what makes their audiences tick beyond the
clicks to understand their day-to-day business execution
needs in detail - and then coming back with powerful services
to address those needs at both enterprise and media levels of
sales. Advertisers in this mix need the ability to speak not
just to individuals but to institutional needs for products
and services, so be prepared to think about how rich data can
bring buyers and sellers together more effectively on the
enterprise level as well.
- Know how to leverage search engines effectively for
rich data services. Web and enterprise search engines
have played a significant role in creating a doorway to
business content. This provides the opportunity for
publishers to consider not only how to optimize pages of
content for being found in search engines but to consider how
rich data can play effectively via search engines as a way to
draw additional interest to editorial resources. Rich data
can maintain loyalty once readers are used to coming to your
portal but consider also how rich data can be embedded in
individual pages of content to provide a more rich context
for people searching for specific solutions via their search
engine of choice. Think of each page in your site as having
not just editorial plus a rich data interface but a discrete
set of integrated information that can be marketed to
multiple levels of audiences seeking both data and text to
solve specific business problems.
- Consider a wide array of relationships to implement
rich data solutions. Larger companies have more muscle to
develop technology to take on rich data initiatives, but
smaller publishers need not be left out in the cold when
considering how to add value through rich data. The focus and
audience loyalty that comes with a successful business
magazine title can be a magnet for partners with rich data
capabilities that lack the ability to focus on very specific
audiences' needs. Sometimes this may mean compromises that
may feel rather uncomfortable at first - are you ready to be
a vertical portal with content from other sources? - but in
each market segment there are going to be only one or two
players who will be able to dominate via a rich data
initiative successfully. Shore research shows that quality is
oftentimes more important to business audiences than
uniqueness, so be prepared to think broadly about how your
existing editorial resources can meet your audience's needs
with help from other sources.
A lot of what rich data represents to business publishers
represents a sharp departure from their traditional business
methods. And yet at its core rich data should be very familiar
to business publishers who have focused intently on their
audiences' interests and needs. Smart business publishers will
look at rich data as an opportunity not merely to tack on some
interesting stuff to their existing operations but to rethink
from the ground up how their audiences value business content
at all levels of their operations. The rewards for doing so
could be, well, quite rich.
-
John Blossom
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