Keeping up with the digitals in publishing
As the total number of active social media users in the Arab world continues to grow, how have organisations been keeping up with their presence in the digital sphere?
From our experience working in the industry, we have come across many businesses that are willing to go digital on all fronts, but find it very difficult to justify the costs to their senior management. It’s all about revenue, ROI and “what’s in it for us?”
A great example that illustrates a slowdown in the shift to going digital is in publishing. Remember back in 2011 when the New York Times introduced the paywall? Publishers saw their revenue streams come crashing down as they thought they couldn’t afford to give up their content for free. Nearly two years after introducing said paywall, digital subscriptions generated approximately $149 million for all of 2013. At the moment, digital subscriptions are regarded as the primary growth engine for the NYT.
Some Middle Eastern publications have caught up with the digital trend to a certain extent as they offer their issues digitally, however they have yet to look into integrating a paywall service. The NYT paywall model enables readers to read a maximum of 10 articles online, if readers want to read more, they need to subscribe. This model has proven to be successful for the New York Times. The UK’s Financial Times has recognised and accepted how new technologies disrupt the business models of traditional publishing by announcing their move to a digital-first strategy in order to survive the shifts in demands of readers in digital versus print.
Are Middle Eastern organisations ready to make drastic and structural changes within their business models to keep up with the digital age? Whether we’re talking about newspaper/magazine subscriptions, or booking a holiday, is there a demand for digital services as opposed to the traditional ‘human interface’ services we’ve come accustomed to for years?
According to the Telecommunications Regulatory Au- thority (TRA), smartphone penetration in the UAE is currently a little over 70 per cent and as this trend grows, consumers slowly, but surely are adapting to changes that have been enabled by new technologies introduced. Organisations need to recognise these trends and the importance of changing and adapting to these new technologies. There will be shifts in revenue streams, however organisations can turn things around as illustrated by the NYT as they chose to be at the forefront in digital by implementing it and trust the consumer, who will eventually follow.
Think about it, the ROI argument can be made for going digital as it would enable organisations to measure their success more accurately through clicks, follows, likes, shares and measuring engagement online. The biggest hurdle to overcome is to take the creative path that seeks new ways of generating revenue digitally. Who’s going to bite first?