Digital Publishing Considerations

So you've studied the market and your customers and decided to dive into delivering your content digitally. It's not hard to do - upload your PDF's to one of the free Digital Publishing Services and job done.

But your expectations of what this new media can do must be more than that - readers or revenue or both? Here are some questions you need to ask yourself.

1. What are you trying to achieve? Are you merely offering your readers a different channel for your content or something in addition to what they see now? Do you think you can derive advertising revenue in addition to your print version? Can you charge subscription prices for this without upsetting your current subscription revenue.
2. What's it going to look like? Can i get away with a simple copy of my print version on-line (probably not) or do I have to get the designers to have a look at making it more reader-friendly?
3. Can I include interactive content? Can I enhance my content using video, audio or web links?
4. Where's the revenue coming from? Are my advertisers going to increase their spend if I introduce another channel? Can I give a good reason for readers to pay on a subscription model? Is there some differentiation between current content and my proposed product?
5. How does it fit in with my other media and reader touch points. Is there an integrated strategy that looks at all communication media?
6. The future? Technology is changing all the time and the roadside is littered with those that have jumped in blind only to find their audience has moved on. Consider tablets, smartphones, print on demand, Flash, HTML 5 , native apps etc. etc. keep abreast of the technology and keep your strategy flexible