From print to digital and mobile, the world of publishing has always been a shifting landscape. Technology has spurred several transformations especially in the last decade that are shaping the publishing industry in unprecedented ways.
So what’s in store for 2023 when it comes to digital publishing trends?
Subscription models
Subscription-based services continue to gain popularity. Subscriptions to digital publications accounted for 44% of overall revenue for news publishers globally in 2018. Enticing readers or viewers to subscribe content, however, is not as simple as offering them access to exclusive features, images, or forums. To turn casual readers and viewers into paying subscribers, publishers often use email newsletters, exit intent pop-ups, and push alerts. Publishers must produce excellent content in innovative formats to draw in new readers and foster reader loyalty. Offering options allows the user to decide whether to pay a fee to access the information or not, which is always preferable.
The Paris Review, for instance, offers four distinct subscription options. The New Yorker offers print + digital issues to subscribers, while Unlimited Digital Access is available to those who have abandoned paper in favour of screen culture. Every membership comes with a free New Yorker tote bag, which adds a personal touch and encourages readers to feel proud of being a part of the community.
Here, customization is crucial. The “entertainment in your pocket” initiatives started by OTT platforms like Netflix, where they launched the mobile-only membership, are an intriguing example to take note of.
Insta Novels
The New York Public Library first introduced Insta Novels in August 2018 with the newly digitised edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Insta Novels is a reworking of Instagram Novels that offers a new venue for some of the most famous stories ever written. They developed “Insta Novels,” a fun, captivating storytelling style, in collaboration with Mother, a New York advertising agency, to appeal to a population of young readers with incredibly short attention spans. The mission of NYPL was to promote reading among a wider audience outside of its four walls. To accomplish this goal, the organisation has resorted to one of the biggest social media networks in the world, Instagram, where it has 400 million daily active members, to share classic literature.
Videos, Audiobooks, and Podcasts:
By 2023, there will be 1.85 billion monthly podcast listeners worldwide. This indicates that publishers are scrambling to capitalise on the current surge in podcasting. When consumers listen to podcasts while working from home, working out, or travelling, they can more readily ingest longer forms of material while going about their daily lives without having to give the content their complete attention. This is encouraging for all types of publishers because people may now listen to any podcast that interests them, whether it’s about intellectual arguments or celebrity rumours.
The publishing industry’s newest darling is audiobooks. In fact, the digital publishing industry’s fastest-growing sector right now is audiobooks. According to the Association of American Publishers, there has reportedly been a 33.9% rise in the number of audiobooks produced in 2017 compared to 2016. Audible is a very well-known membership service for audio books. In 2018, Amazon introduced Audible and its monthly audiobook subscription service in India. They initially offered a 90-day free trial with credit for three free audiobooks, then offered monthly, semi-annual, and annual plans. It is the best subscription service for the money because of its broad range of books and thoughtfully designed interface, to name just two factors.
The majority of consumer screen time on social media is spent watching short, snackable videos. These movies cover a variety of topics, such as how to make delightful sweets at home and quick tutorials on gym exercises. In any case, viewers prefer watching short movies—between 30 and 75 seconds—and video makers have mostly abandoned the conventional structure of one- to two-minute videos. The difficulty for publishers is to keep viewers entertained in that brief amount of time by making videos that are entertaining and engaging without requiring a lot of attention or time.
Collaboration
You are who you hang out with!
That also applies to writers, even if it refers to digital company.
A content package that is well-coordinated with other publishers, organisations, and even influencers can be more significant and potent than one that could have been produced by a publisher alone. When various firms combine their distinctive skills and knowledge, the ultimate product is nearly always a piece of content that offers consumers more value. It can also refer to technological advancements like partnerships between media companies and producers.
A valuable source of money for authors, book to movie adaptations also guarantee improved exposure for the authors. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC Comics, and the Harry Potter Universe are the best examples of all time. Speaking of India, recent successful literary adaptations include Raazi, Sacred Games, and the impending Shantaram television series. The most recent instance globally would be the Times Square grand unveiling of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Fifty “wizarding world influencers,” vloggers, bloggers, and everyone else who had been invited to the launch were present. In order to promote the play’s expansion to new international markets and reveal its new tagline, “Sometimes, Darkness Comes from Unexpected Places,” in the form of an immersive theatre, the Broadway producers of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, in collaboration with the entertainment advertising agency AKA NYC, commandeered Times Square and used 51 towering screens.
Mobile-first approach
For the majority of individuals, mobile is now the best device for internet activity. As a result, it is essential that your publishing platform provide a positive mobile experience. Many things can be limited with a mobile strategy, and there are countless opportunities for creativity. Among the suggestions for establishing a strong mobile presence are things like having:
- Mobile-friendly pages are those that are simple to navigate on mobile devices, meaning they don’t obstruct a user’s ability to execute any action or bother them in any way.
- AMPs are web pages that load more quickly on mobile devices and are given favour in mobile SERPs. Additionally, AMPs are more likely to appear on Google Discover.
- PWAs are webpages designed to take advantage of native mobile capabilities without requiring users to visit the play store or app store and download or buy the app locally. They have the same look and feel of a mobile app.
- Push notifications are when your mobile app or website sends notifications to users’ mobile devices after obtaining their consent.
- Vertical content is preferable for any videos made for mobile devices as this format is supported and preferred by all the major social media platforms, including Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and others. In terms of user engagement, vertical videos outperform horizontal counterparts by 58%.
As more websites link to your material, you will gain backlinks in addition to pleasing your audience by producing high quality content. High E-A-T levels are one of the traits of high-quality material (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). If you are unfamiliar with the phrase, it is a component of Google’s quality standards that determines how a page will rank for a particular keyword: In order to determine the Page Quality grade for a given piece of content, Google considers a number of factors, including the author’s experience, the website’s authority, the website’s credibility, and the website’s trustworthiness.
You will appear higher on Google if your material has a higher Page Quality rating. Having consumers for all types of material, including written, audio-visual, and more, is essential to producing outstanding content.
Publishers are changing how users consume their information on various screens. It’s time to revolutionise the publishing industry by creating wiser production strategies based on reader needs and preferences, with a stronger emphasis on digital trends.