The Accelerated Move from Print to Digital
A growing consumer preference for digital content over print is not new information to those in the publishing industry.
This decline in the consumption of print has been a steady trend over the last decade. With so much available online and the ease of consuming that content, it’s no wonder print is slowly dying out.
The level of decline has varied across different sectors of the publishing industry. For example, newspaper and magazine publishers have been hardest hit. On the other hand, the decline has been noticeable but slower for publishers of content like fiction books and educational resources.
Ultimately, this decline in print consumption is not going away. To remain successful and competitive, publishers will need to make the move from print to digital.
In this blog, we discuss the accelerated move from print to digital in publishing and the reasons for this. We also explain some of the challenges for publishers and offer tips on succeeding when making the move from print to digital themselves.
The Current Publishing Environment
The publishing environment currently features many great opportunities. However, many print media publishers are not taking advantage of these opportunities and are facing drops in revenue and even closure as a result.
The problem is that almost all of these opportunities are in digital publishing not in print.
Newspaper and magazine publishers, in particular, need to move to a predominantly digital model soon, or they will not last. Demand for other digital publications, such as e-books, is not growing quite as quickly. However, the preference for digital over print is seen and will continue to grow in all other areas of publishing.
Newspaper and magazine publishers will need to weigh up possible ad revenue loss from discontinuing print with what can be made online (via web ads on website, sponsored content, affiliate marketing, etc.)
It should be noted that selling print ad space is becoming more and more difficult as opposed to selling digital. Therefore, even if digital ad buys are less than print ad buys, salespeople will be able to sell more in the same amount of time.
If continuing with a print publication, publishers will need to ensure they have a large enough audience to justify it. Adding an e-version of the print magazine will take minimal effort, but if neither of these products are in demand, discontinuation of a traditional magazine will remove many costs. This is not just printing and distribution costs but also costs related to the design needed for full publications that aren’t needed when all content is digital in the form of online articles.
Newspaper and magazine publishers, in particular, must move to a digital model, or they will not survive.
Reasons for the Move from Print to Digital in Publishing
The following are some of the main reasons why the publishing industry is moving from favoring print to digital.
Changes to Consumer Demand
A drop in consumer demand for print and increased demand for digital publications has been the main driver in the move from print to digital in publishing.
A primary reason for the consumption of digital resources is a consumer want for immediacy. Consumers today want news, entertainment, and other forms of content as soon as possible. They don’t want to wait to read today’s news tomorrow in a newspaper. And they don’t want to wait a month or longer to consume stories about an interest or professional topic in a magazine.
Many also prefer the convenience of reading online. This is especially true for shorter pieces of content such as news or magazine articles. However, there is a rise in ebook and digital textbook consumption too due to the ease of accessing books from anywhere on digital devices.
Generational Changes
Younger generations, like Millennials and Gen Z, are not really consuming print at all. This trend will continue to grow going forward.
These generations have spent most or all their lives with instant access to vast amounts of information online. They will not wait for print content to come out when the same content can be consumed online now.
These generations are also more environmentally conscious. Not wanting to consume wasteful paper products will add to this trend too.
Lower Consumer Costs
Digital publications are additionally appealing to consumers as many are free. Even if there is a fee involved, it is generally less than the cost of the print equivalent.
Lower Publishing Costs
Publishing solely online generally comes at a much lower cost than creating a print publication. This is mainly because the high costs associated with printing and distribution are eliminated.
While there is a cost to use online publishing platforms, this is significantly less than the costs associated with printing publications.
There will also be costs associated with running a website that houses content and promotes e-publications. However, many publications will have a website already and will simply need to update it. Even if a big redesign is needed, that investment is a one-time cost and will bring high returns.
The Ability to Reach a Wider Audience
Another factor that has increased the popularity of digital over print is the ability to reach a wider audience.
Placing content online, whether that’s web articles, an e-version of the publication, or both, allows people from around the world to consume the content. This increases the number of paid subscribers if you have a paid element. You'll also see an increase in web visitors and even social media followers and email subscribers.
Effect on Advertisers
Along with increasing brand awareness and revenue for the publication, this will be more appealing to advertisers, especially if they sell internationally. Advertisers will be able to reach a larger target audience which should result in higher returns.
If you find you have a lot of new consumers from certain locations, you will appeal to more advertisers.
For example, if you previously reached a North American audience, advertisers selling exclusively in the UK would not be interested in working with you. However, if 25% of your online audience is from the UK, these advertisers will be more interested in working with you.
Younger generations are barely consuming print. This trend will continue to grow annually.
Declining Print Revenue and a Preference for Digital Advertising
Over the last ten years, print ad revenue has been consistently decreasing, with billions of dollars of losses occurring. In contrast, digital advertising revenue has grown consistently.
This is mainly because fewer and fewer advertisers want to invest in print advertising. The drop in demand for print ad space has been influenced by many things, including:
Lower consumer demand for print publications
Difficulty in tracking the success of print ads (especially when compared to digital advertising options)
The high cost and lower ROI of print vs. digital
Some advertisers with large budgets have continued to place print ads to ensure that they have coverage on all available platforms.
But many companies don't have that luxury. Those businesses with limited advertising budgets are increasingly opting to spend their ad budget on digital. This especially affects more niche print publications that rely on smaller companies for advertising.
Why Advertisers Prefer Digital Advertising to Print
As mentioned, one of the reasons for decreases in print revenue is the increased attractiveness of digital advertising options.
Digital advertising options offer the same, or often better, results than print for a lower cost. In addition to this, there is more control over who within the publication’s audience is reached by setting up targeting parameters.
Digital advertising also allows for more creativity than print. Advertisers can work with digital publishers on video ads/promotions, animated ads, native content, interactive contests, and more.
If advertising in a digital version of a publication, there is the added benefit of hyperlinking ads. These links are trackable, and readers can go directly from ad to website to purchase and get more information.
There is also the option to use multiple ad designs for the same price (or less) than a print ad where you get one static placement. For example, if running web ads on a publication’s website, the advertiser can change the design to avoid wear out, which should bring better results.
The Demand for Data on Ad Campaigns
A move to advertisers wanting in-depth data on advertising success has made digital advertising more appealing too. It is very difficult to measure the success of print ads. With digital, you can see exactly how effective campaigns were.
Digital allows advertisers to know exactly how many people viewed the ad, how many people clicked on the ad, and even what each individual did on their website once they clicked through. Advertisers have the added option of being able to retarget those individuals.
Publishing online also offers the publishers themselves more information about their audience. This helps in improving the content, website design, and promotions.
Digital advertising is appealing as it generally offers better ROI than print advertising.
The Challenges of Moving from Print to Digital
Of course, there are challenges for print publishers moving to a digital model. Not knowing how to overcome these challenges is a primary factor in publishers keeping a print-focused model.
Despite this, if publishers are going to stay relevant (and in business) a move to digital is unavoidable.
The following are some of the main challenges encountered by publishers facing the move from print to digital.
1. The Need for a User-Friendly Website
The first step to moving to a digital model is to build a user-friendly website. While this may cost you, it’s a necessary investment.
Some things to keep in mind when designing a user-friendly website include:
Improve website speed: your web pages should be loading in under three seconds. If not, you’ll lose visitors.
Optimize all web pages for readability: your content needs to be as easy to consume as possible. Some ways to improve readability include using heading, using short sentences and paragraphs, and using a table of contents with longer-form content.
Include easy-to-use navigation: you must make navigating your website easy. Include a navigation bar with main categories and drop-down lists with sub-categories. If you have a lot of web pages, you may want to include breadcrumb navigation too. Always include a search function as well.
Use a user-friendly design: this includes featuring brand elements, using consistent colors and fonts, and having a good amount of white space.
Make your website mobile-friendly: There are a few ways to make your website mobile-friendly, but the best option is to use Responsive Web Design (RWD). This will automatically optimize web pages for any device.
2. The Need to Understand and Implement SEO
Along with a great website design, you’ll need to implement SEO to be successful in your move from print to digital.
This includes optimizing all content using keyword research and on-page SEO elements as well as implementing off-page SEO techniques, such as backlink acquisition and social media promotion of content.
You’ll also need to think about technical SEO when designing and running your website. This includes fixing broken links, identifying crawl errors, and building an internal linking structure.
You can learn to do this yourself and/or rely on your web designer for technical elements. If you have the budget, outsource to a marketing agency or hire an SEO expert.
3. Difficulties Switching to a Digital Ad Revenue Model
Moving from a print to a digital advertising model can be difficult when starting.
To be able to attract advertisers, you need to have a good-sized digital audience. Your website needs high traffic to make placing web ads or native content worthwhile for advertisers. And you need a good number of social media followers and email subscribers to make advertising via those platforms appealing.
If you have not focused much on digital, your web traffic and social media and email followers will likely be quite low. Therefore, you’ll need to employ tactics to get these numbers up if you want to appeal to advertisers.
The higher these numbers, the more you’ll be able to charge too. Having a highly engaged following is important as well, both for attracting advertisers and keeping them on. It doesn’t matter how much traffic or how many followers you have, advertisers won’t return if your audience isn’t buying from them.
There is then the added need for technical knowledge. Both knowledge of how to grow your digital audience and how to set up digital campaigns.
If you or your team don’t have this knowledge and you cannot invest in people who do, the move from a print to digital advertising model will be difficult.
If considering a move to using paywalls to access content, you’ll need to do in-depth research to find out if that is something that will appeal to your target market.
Publishers moving to digital need team members that understand web design, SEO, and digital advertising.
4. An Increased Number of Competitors
While a move to digital increases your audience size, it also increases the number of companies you’re competing with.
Content online comes from a range of sources, including those that you wouldn’t naturally consider a competitor. There are various blogs, both those written by independent publishers and by product or service companies, and many other online publications.
You’ll primarily be competing with these companies to get your content ranking in the top spots on page one of search engines.
For those that are used to competing on the newsstand, this move to digital-based competition can be a difficult adjustment.
5. Copyright and Piracy Issues
There are also more issues with copyright infringement and piracy when publications move from print to digital.
Content shared online can easily be duplicated and reposted by other websites. E-books and similar publications can be pirated and passed onto consumers at a lower cost, or for free, through torrent websites.
In either of these cases, links to the “stolen” content could be competing with the real publisher’s content on search engine results pages too.
Tips for Moving from Print to Digital
The move from print to digital will be a lot easier for certain types of publishers. For example, if you’re a book publisher, you’ll implement a similar strategy as when publishing print books. Instead of uploading to your printing house, you’ll upload the content to an e-book platform.
If you’re a newspaper, magazine, or journal, the move to digital is more involved. Firstly, you need to consider a digital version of your publication.
But to compete most effectively, you’ll also need to develop a content website with updated articles that can compete with other publications for audiences on search engines.
The following are some tips for building a strong online presence as a digital publisher.
Plan a Content Strategy
Print publications moving to digital will be competing with other online-only publications and content websites. These existing competitors will be uploading new content every week, in some cases every day.
This will be content based on what their audience is looking for, led by keyword research. Therefore, simply uploading your print articles, many of which will not be optimized for SEO anyway, will not suffice.
It will be necessary to create a strong content strategy. This includes having frequent idea generation meetings, conducting keyword research, and keeping on top of trends and what your competitors are publishing.
You’ll also need to create editorial calendars outlining what is to be created and deadline dates.
Invest in Your Website
As mentioned earlier, a key component of being successful in the move from print to digital is having a user-friendly website. Investing to upgrade your current website or build a website from scratch is crucial.
Putting budget aside to build an optimized website will bring high ROI in the long run. Be sure to look into grants for publishers to help with this as well.
When looking for a web design company, do a lot of research, be willing to invest a little more for the highest-quality companies, and ensure they offer continued support once the website is built.
Invest in Your Team
With this move from print to digital, you’ll likely need to make additions to your team.
This includes hiring extra writers and editors (especially those experienced in digital publishing) to keep up with the increased amount of content needed. You’ll also likely need marketing experts to help with search engine optimization and digital promotion of your content.
Depending on your budget and needs, you could use freelancers, hire new staff, or use an agency. Your current employees could also be trained in doing some of the tasks needed when moving to digital.
In Conclusion
Moving from a print to a complete or partially digital model is a must for publishers. If they want to continue to compete effectively and reach their target market, then a digital presence and digital offerings, such as e-books, are a must.
This move from print to digital in publishing will not be a problem for some but will be a major challenge for other publishers. Despite this, if publishers invest in their digital transformation, there’s no reason why they can’t succeed in the digital publishing environment as they have in the print world.