Quotes from Outsell research include "We are in a five-alarm fire mode - and it's scary!" Research says goal is 50 percent print, 36 percent digital 14 percent events by 2015. Dip in revenues seen in growth over next five years, then heading up again. [Wow, this is kind of wishful thinking. I think that a 50 percent print revenue goal in five years is reasonable in current models, but in eight years I think that we're heading more towards 40 percent or less.] Org structures, most are hybrid, with online and print P&L rolled up, 61 percent, 17 percent with integrated online and print operations. [The good news is that there are still revenue streams to invest in new platforms, but in a way the I.T. investment is a trap, it focuses publishers on the portal platform when the greatest returns will be in preparing content for consumption away from the portal. B2B publishers need to focus quickly on digital objects distributed by others, including their audience, as the core of their platform operations. Some online publishers are getting there fairly quickly, but it's early days.]
Research quote: "Online staffers don't want to learn print." [This is a key problem from many perspectives, how are you going to reduce the impact of smaller print markets that are not just getting smaller but that require an altogether new approach to print as a platform? My concern is that Google or another major online player will introduce tomorrow's print platform for user-aggregated content. I feel strongly that this will happen. To use Jim Taylor's observation,
Research quote: "In the beginning surgical strikes were okay, now an all-out assault is needed." [Of course the concern is that you wind up fighting the wrong war because you're getting in late. This is in essence what happened with "surgical strikes": publishers went to war with the army they had instead of rethinking the army for a new war until it had turned into a major engagement. When your mortgage is at stake you get creative, but it's not clear that the talent that B2B media needs to recruit will be ready to support the expectations of publishers at the price points that they expect. Good digital talent that gets not only the technology but the content as well is in fairly short supply.] Social media job postings are soaring. [Yet most B2B publishers are at the foothills of social media - viewing it "surgically." Will they get the best talented required to take the lead in social media?] Useful research.
Overall the picture is one of publishers moving aggressively to chase revenues on digital platforms while fretting about how to maintain staffing that will deliver effective print publications. Unified operations can lower costs but they tend to push out print talent that's more comfortable with established production methods and editorial outlooks. I think the real challenge is to find digital natives who are willing to accept some of the wisdom accrued through print media operations but who are also willing to rethink print as a platform. This seems to be confirmed by comments from panelists, who paint a picture of six-figure salaries for "junior" sales people, lots of swapping out of staff for people with digital skills. The key observation seems to be that it's a catch-up game from risk-averse management. Toni Nevitt, SVP of Nielsen Business Media, noted that "it's not going to be perfect." That's a key observation: print publishing is all about creating the perfect publication. The evolutionary and conversational nature of Web content comes from an altogether different angle.
Obviously there is a lot of pain in the transition to digital-first revenues but these are organizations moving as quickly as they can towards those goals. These are not the deer in the headlights. There are some deer out there, to be sure, but these are companies that are fighting hard for an effective digital future.
Labels: ABM, Digital Velocity, events, Research, Workforce
