Technology vs digital publishing
by Aakancha Mittal helloTechnology
is rapidly changing the way we perform tasks and handle information. Like any
other industry, technology has its profound impact on digital publishing as
well.
We
have come a long way from the time first e-book and e-paper was published.
Since Apple published its first iPad in 2010, perception for digital
publication has changed forever. In today’s mobile era, technology plays a
crucial role in providing outstanding publishing and reading experience.
The
relationship between the author and the reader is changing like never before.
All the aspects of complete publishing value chain are evolving at a
rapid pace. From the way we publish, deliver, and distribute to the way we
retrieve, everything is improving continuously.
Let
us look at how technology is affecting digital publishing in a broader sense.
Mobility
With
the advent of mobile devices, it has become a lot easier to access instant
information as per the user convenience. Gone are those days when people could
not check their emails while traveling, wait to watch the favourite series, and
getting the latest updates of a football match on the go.
With
more and more users relying on the mobile devices, digital content has become
more mobile-friendly. Following the trend, authors are designing attractive and
responsive content to be accessed anywhere anytime.
Emergence of Apps
The
publishing industry is making it a priority to always remain connected to their
user base. Daily thousands of apps are launched on the major app platforms.
Keeping up with the trend and huge competition, more innovative and engaging
apps are extensively published.
These
apps are based on providing efficient solutions to the user needs. Users are
continuously on the look for valuable and informative content within their
comfort zone.
Improved User-Experience
Easy
usability and better readability is the primary concern of the publisher to
build their readership. This is achieved by delivering a great user-interface.
It is enhanced by making the content adaptable to a variety of platforms and
designing more responsive and dynamic pages.
The
digital content effortlessly adapts itself to the user-device with a quicker
page load speed. Other elements like images, pop-ups, ads, and others
facilitate a seamless reading experience.
Quality Content
With
the ever-increasing instances of click-bait and fake content online, need for
delivering quality content is highly increasing. Authors assure their readers
of a worthwhile reading experience.
To
be distinguished and believed as an authentic information source, it is
essential to deliver genuine and informative content to the end-readers. Thus,
maintaining quality is as important as delivering unique content.
Engaging Content
With
the decreasing attention span of the internet users, it has become significant
to grab the attention of the target audience. Publishers are increasingly
generating engaging and lively content for the longer retention of readers.
Content
is made more interactive with the use of multimedia. Usage of apt video and
audio has become equally important as delivering awesome content. It is evident
that 80% of the browsed content on the internet is in the form of video. Also,
audio is naturally engaging, for example, ‘OK Google’ commands of Google
Assistant.
User-specific Content
Users
are the key assets and the base of the publishing industry. Authors are more
concerned about this fact than ever and are focusing on delivering
user-specific content and connect with them.
Publishers
are delivering personalized content to users as per their interests and
priorities. This customized content is more likely to be consumed, appreciated
and shared. For example, in a news app, other than the general news
compilation, user-customized segmentation focuses on the frequently read news
category, city news, discussion feeds amongst the community and other relevant
information.
Searchable Content
With
the plethora of content available online, technology has given equal
flexibility and power to everyone to reach the end-users. Thus, users have
access to all types of data online. In such a case, publishers keep up the
practice of making their content more discoverable and user-friendly by using
the optimization techniques.
Hence,
authors are striving hard to make their content searchable. Similarly, the
readers are looking out for valuable content.
Social Media Platforms
The
importance of social
media platforms in business marketing (https://www.magplus.com/blog/how-to-use-social-media-to-grow-your-digital-magazine/) is
known to all. No more restricted to establishing family networks, these
platforms have broadened their reach as robust marketing platforms for
wide-ranged industries.
Industries
have made a strong presence on the social platforms. Be it product reviews,
promotions, discussions, it is the best medium to reach worldwide consumers. It
supports real-time interaction and emphasizes two-way conversation between
author and reader.
It
also encourages instant feedback and advanced analytics.
Augmented Reality
Augmented
reality has been made possible only with the ongoing advances in the
technology. The publishers exploit this field by overlaying the digital
information above the existing physical surroundings. It enables development of
a dynamic environment, unlike previous static user interaction.
In
the digital publishing industry, it has opened a world of new possibilities
with undoubted potential.
For
example, MOTS Comic has delivered appealing comic content with augmented
graphics and text with added musical score. It helped in bringing the comic to
life. Similarly, for children, an app named Supersaurs is introduced where
younger audience are exposed to the engaging environment where dinosaurs roar
and roam around which further assisted in learning.
Artificial Intelligence
It
is an accepted reality and not a buzzword anymore. It helps in setting
preferences, content recommendation, ad selection, conversion optimization, and
other such features. Overall, it provides benefits of superior decisions and
easy task achievement.
Besides,
the personalization of content assists in better analytics and unmatchable user
experience. Smart algorithms are implemented which further do not require human
skills and saves manpower. For example, Google assistant and Siri are the
applications of AI.
Using
voice commands, publications are made even more interactive. A reader can
command to go to a particular page where he left last time, one can search for
a particular topic simply by calling out or request to share an article with
friends.
Subscriptions
With
the advancement in the publishing industry, subscriptions are gaining
popularity over the digital ads as the freshest revenue generation method.
This
age-old method of monetization is again in trend to generate more revenues.
Publishers are focusing on attracting and converting the potential customers
and retaining the existing ones with the well-strategized subscription plans.
Authors
provide an insight into some of their quality services and further persuade
users to subscribe. For example, Audible, an Amazon company is a great platform
to listen to your books anytime and anywhere. They provide monthly
subscriptions after 30 days of free trial. These subscriptions have
interestingly given a boost to the number of Audible users.
Other
such example is Netflix. It is popular worldwide for the unbeatable on-demand
video streaming services. With every subscription users can access complete
library of videos and movies.
Wrapping
it up, technology has had and continues to radically impact the digital publishing industry. It is
certain that the changes will always occur. What is important is to be aware of
them, gear up and adapt accordingly.
With
all these changes, only the delivery method has evolved. The main aim is still
the generation of informative and quality content as per the readers’
interests. Thus, success is achieved by delivering the right content using the
right methods at the right time.
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Created on Aug 10th 2018 05:02. Viewed 648 times.