Follow-up: What The Print Industry Should Be Doing

My recent post about the problems inherent in the print industry's view of how to "save" itself prompted a friend to ask if I had any specific ideas about how they could improve their chances. As a matter of fact, I do. Here a few ideas that make sense to me:

1. A La Carte Sales

Apple's huge success with per-song purchasing from the iTunes store (rather than per-album) demonstrates thats consumers favor making their own choices about media packages. It also shows that when given a choice they will PAY for the privilege. The same concept applies to other online content. Consumers don't want to pay for packages of information that they're mostly not interested in, but many will pay incrementally if they can make their own selections. Content providers should provide a la carte purchasing options that allow consumers to choose singular pieces or sections of information based on their own interests. The old "all-or-nothing" subscription strategy will continue to fail because audiences don't consume media the same way in the digital content era. More buying options would bring more paying consumers.

Of course, the music companies hated this compromise, mostly for a variety of reasons that did not favor consumers. Too bad. The market clearly shows it's what consumers want, so the music business had to adapt. Remember, the idea is how to evolve so print can flourish, not how to maintain the status quo so they can continue to fail.

2. Micro-Payment Systems

For an a la carte purchasing system to work the print industry needs to embrace another idea from Apple: a micro-payment transaction system that allows consumers to easily purchase and instantly receive digital content on any device. Using a desktop computer, an iPhone, or an iPad, iTunes store users can find and download a variety of media for immediate us. Text-based media should work the same way. No fuss, no waiting: click yes to read the story (or whatever) and your account is charged a small amount to make the content instantly available on any of your devices. As long as the incremental charges are reasonable, consumers would willingly spend in multiple smaller units for just the content they want. Ultimately, more units at a lower price will exceed the income from fewer units at a higher all-or-nothing price. Micro-payments have already been a profitable practice for Apple and other online vendors. The print industry needs to do the same thing.

3. Stop Making Dead-Tree Editions

The hardest, but probably most important change for the industry will be to stop producing physical products and move entirely to digital content delivery. The costs associated with producing, printing and distributing hard copy products are extraordinary. It's common knowledge that print periodical and newspaper circulations are down across the board and will only continue to decline. Expecting digital product sales to subsidize these legacy costs will seriously limit the cost savings and competitive price advantages that digital offers. The sooner content producers eliminate these legacy "dead-tree edition" costs, the sooner digital profitability will grow, and investments can be focused entirely on their digital future.

Making the transition to digital-only will no doubt be VERY painful for most of the established, iconic content producers who see print as being at the core of their history and value. It may take a generational shift in the management of these media behemoths before a full transition can occur. But the digital future of content delivery is obvious and inevitable. There's already a new generation of digital-only sites that are succeeding financially and using their success to expand their own original reporting, writing and other content. Sites like Slate, TPM, Daily Beast, Huffington Post and others are well on their way to maximizing the digital-only advantage, and without the burden of a dead-tree overhead they are well-positioned to become even more competitive in the future. The sooner the print establishment embraces and adapts to an all-digital future, the sooner they will be able to maximize those same advantages.

Yes, some readers will miss the hard copy editions of yesterday's news. But with newer generation devices (and audiences) now becoming the norm, even established consumers will quickly adapt. Very many of them already have. The Internet has now become the primary source of information for most people. It's time for content developers to make digital their primary channel for them.

These are a just few ideas that seem obvious to me. Along with other emerging new ideas, these ideas can help the print industry better position itself for the digital future. The sooner the industry accepts and adapts to the new patterns for success with digital delivery, the sooner they will begin to "save" themselves.