Publishing 2.0 has changed the way people get their information. The masses are slowing moving away from traditional publishing venues like newspapers and magazines and towards online articles and blogs. This has also changed the relationship between the publisher and content developers.
The people who develop content can now directly market it to the audience over the internet without going through traditional publishing channels. Businesses are catching onto this concept and are increasingly using the services of content writers to create effective content that essentially markets itself.
Digital Publishing has Changed Many Industries
This shift is being seen everywhere- from magazine and book publishing sector to music, movies and gaming industries. The digital publishing revolution has changed the way we distribute any type of content. A while back, the music industry was taken by storm when Napster was founded. Big record labels were no longer in control of the distribution of music. The digital age allowed users to share and download music for free, which resulted in huge losses for the major recording companies. This still holds true today with many sites like MySpace, Amazon and Soundcloud allowing free music sharing.
A similar trend also affected the print industry. The magazine, newspaper and book publishing industries were under the control of a few major players, but not anymore. The people who come up with the written content are no longer at the mercy of big publishing moguls. They can directly reach out to their audience via the internet. In a matter of seconds, the content can be delivered from the writer to the consumer. Digital publishing has brought democracy in the publishing world. Content is freely available to anyone and usually does not pass through strict filtering channels.
Traditional Content Distribution Model
Previously, there were separate groups of people to accomplish different things. Segmentation was done so people could specialize and become experts in one area only, like writing or marketing. One set used to generate the content while another distributed it effectively. Video game developers, authors, software developers, music artists and others had their work monitored, and often times changed to suit the wishes of publishers. This model was also time consuming and expensive. The content developers were left with a small fraction of the total earnings as distribution channels and publishers were entitled to most of the profits.
Modern Model
People are now realizing that content quality is more important than aggressive marketing campaigns. There is no need for separate parties to create and market content- content developers can do both at a fraction of the cost. The end users are the judges now. Internet tools like Google Analytics and AdSense, and social networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc are now helping content creators improve the quality of their work by providing vital information like user feedback and content popularity. The gaming industry has just realized the benefits of this model. Game developers can directly market their games via Facebook and other browser add-on directories. Publishers and content developers now have to work together to develop better financial plans, marketing strategies and SEO content.
The power is coming back into the hands of the creators and a true content democracy is coming of age. It’s a revolutionary phase for the publishing industry and definitely the one to watch out for!