As Publishers, You Must Develop A Combo Content Delivery Strategy On Print and Digital

We all know that the Internet has changed many things about us. It has redesigned all aspects of our lives.  The impact of high-speed Internet connectivity and mobile phone technologies on print is immense. In this age when we want things immediately, the print is making way for a new kind of content delivery – digital. Yet, print i s still very important.

For publishing entrepreneurs, here are the two things to consider as you you move into deciding a strategy.

Digital delivery of content is now the primary method for some key reasons:

• Quick access to content

• Ease of searching

• Inclusion of live hyperlinks and multimedia (i.e., sound/video)

• Portability

• Tight control of content (of particular appeal to publishers)

• The ability to update as needed

Print as a content delivery method and has advantages of its own:

• Permanence

• No electronic device required to read it (and no concerns for electricity or battery life)

• Easy ability to archive

• Physical annotation

• Paper is easy to recycle

• Print does not require high-tech devices or monthly service plans

Overall, publishers and other content providers have seen how important electronic delivery is to their future. Publishers see how digital print and electronic delivery can be used in combination to create a “data warehouse” of documents that, for example, allows books to be delivered as orders are received.

Getting payment for content, however, presents its own challenges. The models for delivering and paying for content in the digital age are evolving and had a significant impact on the publishing market.

Africa is getting into the mix with m-payment and that will simplify the payment of contents. With cellphone based payment, a lot of things will be made easier. It has to be and that means even the digital could be profitable as the old media.