THE ROLE OF DATA IN DIGITAL PUBLISHING

Technology innovation surrounding digital content is dramatically changing the way people access and consume information. Whereas merely 10 years ago paper-based media were still a mainstay of publishers, the industry has quickly evolved to be dominated by ‘screen’-based media with a multitude of channels. Consumers have never had as much access to content with such ease. 

While we are pushing the barriers in terms of how and where we access content, are the methods of content development keeping up? Given the changing economics of publishing, are content developers evolving to meet shifting needs in the market? We find that while there are some progressive players out there, we also see many publishers are struggling with how to evolve content development in this shifting landscape.

Rather than being challenged by technology, today’s most progressive publishers are embracing new data and a wide array of resources to better drive business goals. Furthermore, more and more of these organizations are turning to authors to maximize their content performance, and some are even starting to tie content performance data to editorial compensation. 

Gawker is one such example. In an article by Josh Sternberg of DigiDay, Gawker’s VP of operations, Scott Kidder, said: ”We track costs — not revenues — by writer against uniques and share that data with site editors-in-chief.” Complex Media and Forbes are also examples of publishers that factor in readership metrics when determining salaries. Metrics include quantifiable data such as pageviews, frequency of visits, time spent on site, ratios of new website visitors, etc. 

According to Sternberg’s piece, Forbes has a formula to evaluate their editorial staffers every six months. The formula includes not only elements like quality of reporting and number of scoops, but also content performance metrics such as unique visitors, number of Forbes followers, number of Twitter followers, and user engagement (comments). Essentially, the size and loyalty of a writer’s readership is what determines how much they get paid.

If changes in the publishing industry is an issue of importance to your organization, consider attending our publishing industry panel discussion, "Web Laws of Nature: The Role of Data and Darwinism in Digital Publishing" at Intelligent Content 2014, February 26-28, in San Jose, CA. I'll be speaking at this 45-minute discussion with Scott Abel (The Content Wrangler), Lincoln Millstein (Hearst), and panel moderator Mikal E. Belicove (Forbes.com contributor and Entrepreneur magazine columnist). Bring your questions and ask them of the panel. It's going to be a very informative discussion.