Conversion Diversion
When I talk to production editors or chief product officers at publishing houses about the benefits and challenges in the era of digital publishing, they cannot imagine accomplishing their goals today without the dramatic improvements in the production processes that technology has made possible. And they embrace the increased opportunities to reach new markets and audiences—especially those that prefer to consume information on electronic devices. But they regularly struggle with how best to label, organize, and store their digital assets so that they can keep track of them, locate them, and quickly know how and when they were created. More often than not, especially with publishers who have a long history of print-only publications and have only recently begun to implement a digital strategy, many of their assets may not be in any type of digital format, but rather stuck in a physical library somewhere. Often both physical documents (slides, manuscripts, mechanicals, original art and photography) and digital files are dispersed in many different locations, and production editors may find it no easier to locate digital files than older, non-digital materials.
If publishers face this problem, converting their archived print documents into a digital format isn’t enough; they also have to adopt an asset management system to organize and help them find their digital files so that they can be used again. The best first step toward building a workable digital library is to begin with the most recently completed digital publications and then work backwards to address legacy products. The most recent digital productions are likely to be the easiest to convert to current standard formats and should provide a usable model for older outputs.
A good asset management system provides publishers with the flexibility they need to respond to evolving market needs. As all market segments become increasingly accustomed to consuming information in digital formats, the demand for high-quality digitized intellectual property will increase dramatically. To take full advantage of their digital content, publishers have to maintain the integrity of the complete, final publication so that it can be relaunched or repurposed, but they also need to be able to reuse the individual digital elements that comprise the original files. Publishers need to be able to respond to requests for different versions of a publication (or even parts of a publication) on demand. Just as POD provided a solution to books that might otherwise have gone out of print and therefore would be inaccessible to the market, publishers need a solution for repurposing finished files of a book for new publications that may vary from the original product.
Since digital files are easy to manipulate in almost any format, when editors identify new publishing opportunities, they can first look to reuse content that has been converted and is accessible instead of beginning from scratch. In theory, from the beginning of any project, all of the elements of a publication should be designed so that they can be reused in future products. Whether the finished product ends up in print or digital form, the elements themselves should all be digital and located in a searchable database. In order to accomplish this, the asset management system should be a common tool used by the editorial, production, and design teams. If this system is in place and continually managed, the publisher can repurpose content and respond to internal and external product requests in almost any format.
Case Study
Here is how A+ Media, a development and production house that had made the transition from print to digital platforms, was able to solve a client’s problem with a successful program that was not sustainable in its current form.
Almost 30 years ago, before digital publishing solutions of any kind were available, A+ Media developed a national science writing competition sponsored by a Fortune 500 company that today receives 10,000 student entries per year. Up until five years ago, almost all of the components pertinent to the competition were print-based; official guidelines and brochures were mailed to 30,000 schools, and thousands of essays would arrive at their offices by regular ground or overnight shipping services. But as each year’s print, fulfillment, and shipping costs grew, the sponsor began having second thoughts about the program’s viability—despite its popularity with the schools and the goodwill it generated for the company.
At the same time that the company was seriously considering canceling the program, A+ Media reached a tipping point of its own, where digital technology was finally grounded enough in the schools, and where its own in-house capabilities to create digital media were sufficiently developed, allowing it to replace all of the print-based components of the program with digital ones. Communication about the program could be done using e-letters and e-blasts, and the guidelines and instructions, as well as the entries, could all be organized on a robust website. Their digital transformation reduced the program costs—which changed the client’s thoughts about terminating the program—and also improved A+ Media’s bottom line. Equally important, it was able to enhance the program’s efficiency by only accepting essay entries electronically through an online entry form. This streamlined the judging process, which was critical since the number of essay entries increased dramatically.
A+ Media’s experience is a good example of why publishers should focus on the quality and scope of the content they produce rather than the format of the finished product—whether it’s a book, magazine, disc, flash drive, or any other output. They should regard their content as reusable intellectual property that can change form and format depending on the audience, and move freely to become part of any workflow. From the initial planning stages of a project to the production of final files, publishers should consider multiple ways in which their content might be used so that they can take full advantage of any market opportunities while also keeping track of any ownership issues or restrictions related to the content.
