One of the most talked-about developments in publishing in 2010 was News International putting its general news and interest titles behind a paywall (nma.co.uk 1 July 2010). Rupert Murdoch's vision has changed the issue of paid content from black-and-white to shades of grey. It's no longer about whether users will pay, but how. Publishers have realised the concept of users paying for digital content is valid. This growing acceptance is sparking a range of disparate strategies exploring appetite for paid content through wildly varying app, pricing, loyalty scheme and subscription models, all of which serve individual publishers' strengths but confuse users and, overall, weaken the industry.
If paid content is to work, then cohesion is needed. Next year could see collective action towards the development of a universal payment platform. The alternative is the continuing fragmentation and divergence of content owners.
But 2011 will bring more than just a growing need for unity on paid content; privacy around data collection is a particularly acute issue. Imminent EU legislation and interpretation of privacy is likely to demand some form of consumer consent and opt-in, forcing a shift from behavioural data to a census alternative.
With mounting pressure on publishers to know their digital audience as much as possible, as ad premiums hinge on clever audience segmentation, it's no surprise they've started reasserting the value of their premium brand over direct response competitors. However, committing to the premium brand ad route will require them to have deeper relationships with, and possibly depend on, advertisers looking for unprecedented access to editorial schedules, exclusive launches and opportunities for content creation.
There's also new territory to conquer: the traditional ground of broadcasters. With TV integrating with the internet in such an advanced way, publishers will face even more competitors.
Tim Brooks MD, Guardian News & Media
All print publishers are at different stages of a journey from being a purely print business to becoming a digital business. What's common to all is that the pace of change is very high and only continues to increase.
Publishers have to learn and hire new skills as some of the technical challenges we face are new to everyone in the sector. Apps, for example, are complex creatures, particularly if you're serving content dynamically. At the moment there's a huge amount of experimentation and no one has the answers to how content-based companies can make a business out of digital media. The beauty is that everyone learns from those experiments.
One of the trends this year has been the amazing popularity of 'now', or live blogging. There's something about the immediacy that the web can bring that's appealing to people, and that's exactly the opposite of a PDF-style closed app. We constantly wrestle with the tension between completeness and openness.
Where advertising is concerned, you can't ignore Facebook. A lot of advertisers are now using it in all sorts of experimental ways. My hope is it'll be a catalyst for everyone in the ad community to better understand how to be effective in online advertising. Ads online are all about the relevance to the environment they're in but also to the consumer. I believe we're heading into a world where you'll get to choose the kinds of ads you want to see.
The way that mobile traffic is exploding is extraordinary. Our site traffic is growing at double-digit rate annually but our mobile site is growing at a triple-digit rate. One of our key software guys went to Silicon Valley in the summer. One of the questions I'd asked him to ask people was why we should be prioritising mobile development. One of the guys who runs Twitter gave a one-word answer: "Duh." Mobile is now, it really is.
Tim Faircliff Chairman, AOP; general manager of consumer media, Thomson Reuters
I would hope that in 2011 publishers will no longer be debating the relative importance of mobile as a channel but be figuring out what they're going to do about it. Having a plan for mobile won't ensure success, but not having one is a guarantee of failure.
There are now four times the number of mobile devices than PCs worldwide, and they're used by all generations too. Mobile web use and smartphone penetration are changing the way people live and work. It's not necessarily a goldrush for application build, but a smarter way of using the mobile platform to ensure audiences get focused, single interactions that are appropriate for the space and place they're in. With GPS tracking, augmented reality and barcode technology now on- stream, the space is open to experimentation and execution.
Publishing organisations need to ensure they have a mobile champion so that mobile isn't kept in a silo. They'll need to capture the attention of audiences with engaging, entertaining, practical and time-saving personal, relevant services. In 2011, I expect a response from publishers to the way their audiences are using these technologies. At the AOP, we intend to keep this at the top of our agenda for members through our expanded forums and conference agendas.
I would look to publishers, clients and agencies to ensure these solutions are front of mind as web publishing takes on an ever increasing personal, social and mobile slant in 2011. It's also a fun medium and it would be good to make some real money from it too.
Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors
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