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Time for print media to reclaim innovation in engaging readers

Platform: Internet | Author: Ben Edwards, publisher, Economist.com | Source: NMA magazine | Published: 20.11.08

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For the past few years established newspaper and magazine brands have suffered a double indignity. Even as readers and advertisers have deserted them in print, brash twentysomethings have been out-innovating them online, revolutionising the way audiences connect, share, discuss and filter the world.

Yet there are unmistakable signs that fortunes are changing. Consider the following headlines: The New York Times launches a link- and tag-sharing community of readers called Times People;...

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... Time relaunches its website for the Web 2.0 era; The Washington Post launches The Political Browser, a curated amalgam of WaPo readers and what's good on the web. We at The Economist have also found a clear direction and purpose online: to build a place for global intelligent discussion and debate. This month we launched the second generation of our online debate platform so editors can host debates with guest speakers and tens of thousands of Economist readers.

The phenomenon we've labelled Web 2.0 is first and foremost a publishing revolution. The web has taken an industry built on high fixed costs of production and distribution and allowed the billion individuals connected to it to publish freely and instantly. In the news industry, activities previously performed only by journalists, such as reporting, analysis and filtering the news, are now also done by the audience, often collaborating in large numbers.

Like most incumbent industries facing disruptive technology change, the mainstream media reacted unhappily. Editors and publishers spent the first few years of this century decrying the bloggers who were harnessing the web to pioneer new publishing models. Yet gradually, the publishing mainstream is learning to co-opt these web innovations.

One question remains: can publishers turn this innovation into money? Here I think we've all been playing a poor game. Thanks in part to the domination of Google in the early years of web publishing, the web delivers direct marketing well, but not brand advertising. As publishers, we've participated in building an environment in which direct marketing thrives; overwhelmingly, the web is functional and ugly. Yet many of us built our success in print on brand display advertising. This works best when the audience is deeply engaged in the environment the publisher creates and when the advertiser's brand message is tightly and elegantly integrated into the experience. Web technologies are now sophisticated enough for us to build these sorts of rich, engaging experiences for our audiences and advertisers. Among smart publishers, the next wave of innovation will focus on this.