The Jan/Feb issue of InPublishing magazine should be with you now. (If you’re not on our free mailing list, you can register here.)
There’s lots to enjoy, learn and be inspired by in the issue. For me, four messages stood out. Firstly, logged-in behaviour is the future. Whilst scale is still important, the value of an anonymous visitor pales in comparison with that of the logged-in visitor – in terms of revenue, by as much as five times. Facebook, unsurprisingly, realised this a long time ago, but publishers like the Telegraph are now chasing sign-ups too.
Secondly, in the digital world, the job is never done. Inaction spells decline. You should be monitoring every aspect of your digital offering and the marketplaces it sits in, all of the time and looking to make continual incremental improvements. This might take you and your team out of your comfort zone, but that’s no bad thing.
Thirdly, expertise is not a function of scale. Great investigative journalism is not the preserve of the big players. After the Grenfell tower tragedy, there was a lot of soul searching in the media – why hadn’t the issues around building regulations and cladding been picked up before? Well, they had been, by Inside Housing. Great reporting is about dedication, graft and expertise; it’s a choice we all make.
Finally, in this multi-media world, the written word still has enormous power. The hottest media talking point in January was a book, written by a magazine journalist. Fire and Fury, whatever its journalistic shortcomings, has been a sensation. You can’t listen to it, you can’t watch it; you’ve got to read it. Events, video, data services, podcasting, VR, AI et al, are all exciting parts of the new media world, but brilliant writing is, for me, still what it’s all about.
