As digital technology shortens the publishing cycle, new ways have emerged to monetize content. Publishers are able now to deliver and license their content for websites and apps, partners; readers are able to mix and match content in new ways; and traditional book publishers and publishers in other media are suddenly able to repurpose that content in a range of forms and formats into books in response to news events and other timely triggers.
In January at the Digital Book World Conference, leading publishers described how they are finding opportunities outside their historical commercial activity to generate new revenue from existing content. Sharing lessons from success in implementing the “create once, publish everywhere model” were Michael Cairns, Chief Operating Officer – Online Division at Publishing Technology; Amanda D’Acierno, Penguin Random House, Senior Vice President, Publisher, Random House Audio, Fodor’s Living Language; and Pip Tannenbaum, Parragon Books, director, digital product development.
“I come from audio books where we make one great file, then we publish it however it needs to be published,” D’Acierno told CCC’s Chris Kenneally. When she arrived at Fodor’s, D’Acierno recalled, “I kept saying, why can’t we just do that with travel? Why can’t I write about the restaurants in my neighborhood in Brooklyn and just have them immediately uploaded?”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed