(From the Preface)
In 2007 I wrote a book entitled Publishing without Boundaries: How to Think, Work, and Win in the Global Marketplace, which had two main objectives: to provide publishers with editorial strategies for creating culturally appropriate products for non-traditional markets; and to outline ways to leverage emerging digital technologies to generate additional revenue streams. The book provides a roadmap for how publishers can break through the outmoded constraints of their usual geographic and format “boundaries” to maximize the initial investments they make in their intellectual properties and encourages publishers “to look beyond ink on paper and to take advantage of the digital options that were available at the time. Opportunities in new markets, foreign and domestic, and in new formats were not being fully exploited.” Even though much of what I discussed in that book remains relevant, the strategies I recommended that publishers employ for developing their business plans are insufficient for today’s rapidly evolving, technology-driven environment.
Over the past 15 years, publishers have had a variety of technology options available to help improve their business fundamentals and to meet market requirements. Although publishers have recognized that to remain relevant, they would need to adopt digital technologies more aggressively than in the past, it was not always clear which solutions would have staying power and were less likely to be obsolesced in the near term. Publishers as well as their customers have become wary of committing to new formats, as early adopters of previous technologies often discovered that they had made the wrong choice. Even the savviest decisionmakers could be lured into making a bet on a losing horse.
Unknowingly choosing a technology at the end of its lifecycle can be costly in terms of lost time and wasted resources. Unfortunately, we have seen this scenario occur frequently in the education sector, where publishers and their customers have burned through a series of analog and digital formats, wasting hardware and software purchases, in a short time span. All too often, as soon as a publisher had completed the implementation of a tech solution, and before the investment could be amortized on the balance sheet, it was time to move on to another one.
Over the course of a 40-year career in publishing, I have developed and brought to market products in nearly every popular format, most of which now belong to the annals of publishing history. Educational films, produced on celluloid and played on 16-millimeter film projectors, as well as 35mm filmstrips, which utilized their own dedicated hardware—widely distributed in schools and libraries in the 1960s through the first half of the ‘80s and then in VHS and DVD formats in the ‘90s—accounted for a miniboom in publishing. Laserdiscs (an analog technology despite its digital-sounding name) emerged as a competing format for a short time in the ‘80s, only to be superseded by VHS and Betamax tapes, and then CD-ROMs and DVDs. When the personal computer arrived, schools and libraries established separate spaces for computer labs, then transitioned to building-wide local area networks (LANS), which in turn were largely supplanted by interactive whiteboards and tablets in classrooms.
Print has survived through the decades and remains a standard in the consumer and education markets today, along with Internet devices that provide users access to multimedia content—including streaming video—from the “cloud” (a collection of servers, often in multiple locations). On a large scale, the education sector has adopted the use of Web-based learning management systems (LMS), or learning content management systems (LCMS) which store, organize, and deliver proprietary school-district content, shared content with other connected servers, and downloadable content from the Web.
Regardless of their target market, publishers have become entirely dependent on access to accurate and up-to-date information and knowledge on the Web, either through free Web services or proprietary sites behind paywalls. We may not be able to imagine what if anything will replace the Internet, but we can safely assume that the devices and software that provide us with almost instant access to cloud content will continue to feature faster processing speeds, more memory, better screen resolution, and advanced functionality to respond to an increasingly competitive environment and consumer preferences.
Rapidly changing technologies have presented a challenge to publishers in meeting both their customers’ needs and business objectives. No one wants to get caught with their trends down; but a publisher should not have to go bankrupt while keeping up with advances in technology. Other businesses have faced similar challenges in adopting technology solutions. Threats to traditional businesses from unconventional innovators have meant that business leaders have been forced to adjust their tactics quickly or choose between undesirable options—including selling off assets or shutting down altogether.
Publishing in the Digital Age can be ordered from the publisher, Routledge, directly with a 20% discount using the code FLY21 at checkout.
