Technology is rapidly changing the way we perform tasks and handle information. Like any other industry, technology has a profound impact on digital publishing as well. We have come a long way from the time the first e-book and e-paper were published. Since Apple published its first iPad in 2010, the perception of digital publication has changed immensely. In today’s mobile era, technology plays a crucial role in providing outstanding publishing and reading experience.
The relationship between the author and the reader is changing like never before. All the aspects of the complete publishing value chain are evolving at a rapid pace. From the way we publish, deliver, and distribute information to the way we retrieve it, every aspect is improving continuously. Let us look at how technology is affecting digital publishing in a broader sense.
Mobility
With the advent of mobile devices, it has become a lot easier to access instant information at the user’s convenience. Gone are those days when people could not check their emails while traveling, waiting to watch their favorite series and get the latest updates of a football match on the go. With more and more users relying on mobile devices, digital content has become more mobile-friendly. Following the trend, authors are designing attractive and responsive content to be accessed anywhere anytime.
Emergence of apps
The publishing industry has prioritized the need to remain connected to their user base. Daily, thousands of apps are launched on the major app platforms. Keeping up with the trend and huge competition, more innovative and engaging apps are being extensively published. These apps are based on providing efficient solutions to the user’s needs. Users are continuously on the look for valuable and informative content within their comfort zone.
Improved user-experience
Easy usability and better readability are the primary concerns of the publisher to build their readership. This can be achieved only by delivering a great user interface, which is enhanced by making the content adaptable to a variety of platforms and by designing more responsive and dynamic pages. The digital content effortlessly adapts itself to the user’s device with a quicker page-load speed. Other elements like images, pop-ups, ads, and others facilitate a seamless reading experience.
Quality content
With the ever-increasing instances of click-bait and fake content online, the need for delivering quality content is highly increasing. Authors assure their readers of a worthwhile reading experience.
To be distinguished and accepted as an authentic information source, it is essential to deliver genuine and informative content to the end-readers. Thus, maintaining quality is as important as delivering unique content.
Engaging content
With the decreasing attention span of Internet users, it has become significant to grab the attention of the target audience. Publishers are increasingly generating engaging and lively content for the longer retention of readers. Content is made more interactive with the use of multimedia. Usage of apt video and audio has become equally important as is delivering awesome content. 80% of the browsed content on Internet is in the form of video format. Also, audio is naturally engaging, for example, the ‘OK Google’ commands of Google Assistant.
User-specific content
Users are the key assets and the base of the publishing industry. Authors are more concerned about this fact than ever and are focusing on delivering user-specific content and connecting with them.
Publishers are delivering personalized content to users as per their interests and priorities. This customized content is more likely to be consumed, appreciated, and shared. For example, in a news app, other than the general news compilation, user-customized segmentation focuses on the frequently read news category, city news, discussion feeds among the community, and other relevant information.
Searchable content
With the plethora of content available online, technology has given equal flexibility and power to everyone to reach the end-users. Thus, users have access to all types of data online. In such a case, publishers ensure the practice of making their content more discoverable and user-friendly by using optimization techniques. Hence, authors are striving hard to make their content searchable. Similarly, the readers are looking out for valuable content.
Social media platforms
The importance of social media platforms in business marketing is known to all. No more restricted to establishing family networks, these platforms have broadened their reach as robust marketing platforms for a wide range of industries. Industries have made a strong presence on social platforms. Be it product reviews, promotions, or discussions, social media platforms are the best way to reach out to worldwide consumers. It supports real-time interaction and emphasizes two-way conversation between the author and the reader. It also encourages instant feedback and advanced analytics.
Augmented reality
Augmented reality has been made possible only with the ongoing advances in technology. The publishers exploit this field by overlaying the digital information upon the existing physical surroundings. It enables the development of a dynamic environment, unlike previous static user interactions.
The digital publishing industry has opened a world of new possibilities with undoubted potential.
For example, MOTS Comic has delivered appealing comic content with augmented graphics and text with added musical score. It has helped in bringing the Comic to life. Similarly, for children, an app named Supersaurs has been introduced whereby the younger audience is exposed to the engaging environment where dinosaurs roar and roam around, which further assists in learning.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an accepted reality and not a buzzword anymore. It helps in setting preferences, content recommendation, ad selection, conversion optimization, and other such features. Overall, it provides the benefits of superior decisions and easy task achievement. Besides, the personalization of content assists in better analytics and unmatchable user experience. Smart algorithms are implemented that further do not require human skills and save manpower. For example, Google Assistant and Siri are applications of AI.
Using voice commands, publications are made even more interactive. A reader can command to go to a particular page that he left last time; one can search for a particular topic simply by calling out or request to share an article with friends.
Subscriptions
With the advancement of the publishing industry, subscriptions are gaining popularity over digital ads as the freshest revenue generation method. This age-old method of monetization is again in trend to generate more revenues. Publishers are focusing on attracting and converting potential customers and retaining the existing ones with well-strategized subscription plans.
Authors provide insight into their quality services and further persuade users to subscribe. For example, Audible, an Amazon company, is a great platform to listen to your books anytime and anywhere. They provide monthly subscriptions after 30 days of the free trial. These subscriptions have interestingly given a boost to the number of Audible users. Another such example is Netflix. It is popular worldwide for its unbeatable on-demand video streaming services. With every subscription, users can access a complete library of videos and movies.
Wrapping it up, technology has had and continues to radically impact the digital publishing industry. Certainly, changes will always occur. What is important is to be aware of them, gear up, and adapt accordingly. With all these changes, only the delivery method has evolved. The main aim is still the generation of informative and quality content as per the readers’ interests. Thus, success is achieved by delivering the right content using the right methods at the right time. To explore more possibilities regarding digital publishing, please contact us today!