People began exchanging information in fascinating new ways after the Internet’s 1989 introduction. Whole new industries were created, others were revamped, and the nature of commercial communication was forever altered. The same scenario continues after 40 years, but it has been scaled up considerably. The typical workplace is no longer what it once was due to the advent of the Internet. Nevertheless, it has also given rise to entire industries that are ready for disruption and innovation. Introducing digital publishing.
With the development of new technology, publishing has evolved over the years. Turnkey solutions are already permeating every imaginable market and assisting organizations in gaining an edge over their competitors. According to Extrapolate’s study, the global digital publishing market is predicted to develop at a 6.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach $40.02 billion in 2026.
Yet, what digital publishing means to one person may not mean the same to another. And a lot of us could be bewildered by it. We’re here to help you make sense of it all, so don’t fret.
Digital Publishing. What is it, exactly?
First, let’s dissect it. All online media accessible on electronic devices, including laptops and pads, is referred to as “digital” technology. According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, “publishing” is the process of “bringing printed works (such magazines, books, and catalogs) before the public, usually for sale.” Combining two and two makes understanding digital publishing much simpler. It refers to the use of internet technologies to distribute written or printed content via electronic devices by digitizing it.
Examples of Digital Publishing
Most people think of newspapers or e-books when they think about digital publishing, and they’re not mistaken! But, there is much more to digital publishing than that. It’s the instructional videos you watch on YouTube, the movie ticket apps you utilize, or the talks you watch on TED Talks.
A Look Into Benefits of Digital Publishing
Let’s have a conversation about the news. How do you keep up with important events such as presidential elections, celebrity gossip, and medical breakthroughs? The natural response, if we had asked you 30 years ago, would have been via the newspaper. You’d probably respond that you obtain your news from morning TV shows or through mobile applications.
It is impossible to dispute the huge impact of technological improvements given the 4.57 billion active internet users worldwide. Simply put, traditional publishing techniques are not as popular as they once were. But the majority would concur that this transformation is for the better!
Expect the following advantages if you decide to switch to digital publishing:
- Deeper Engagement
Anybody who shares content wants to get the most out of their audience’s attention. Customers are used to tuning out the clutter of irrelevant ads, ineffective pop-ups, difficult site navigation, and unintelligible content.
Digital publishing reduces clutter and offers a seamless user experience that keeps users interested and more receptive to your brand and calls to action (CTAs).
In contrast, consumers lack a sense of completion in a world where social media feeds are constantly updated and scrolled through. People are left with a sense of incompleteness, questions go unanswered, and valuable time is lost.
These emotions are put to rest by digital publishing. Users get straightforward and interesting information through multimedia including enticing text, videos, and infographics in the well-tuned experience, which leaves them feeling complete.
- Wider Audience
Only a few distribution points allow traditional printing methods. In contrast, digital publishing attracts targeted customers and is accessible to billions of globally active internet users.
As people move around, so do digital publications. Maintaining your content’s mobility is a critical consideration for organizations as society increasingly relies on technology and ease. It is expected that by 2023, there will be 7.3 billion mobile users worldwide, up from just under 7 billion in 2021.
That is a much larger audience than the hundreds, thousands, or — very rarely — millions of individuals that traditional methods can typically reach.
- More Access to All Audiences
Consider the variety of new users engaged with your content while making an online move. It’s acceptable if some members of your audience are less able than others to see, hear, move, speak, or understand.
You may engage everyone, including those with impairments, by using digital publishing to disseminate information through various media. If the majority of your publications are text-based, add the following to diversify them:
- Easy-to-use features.
- Visualized graphics.
- Informational videos.
- Enlarged graphics or text options.
These options are constrained by traditional print, which excludes a sizable segment of the public that could find your work useful.
The Final Word on Digital Publishing
Print is quickly losing ground to digital publishing and media. The COVID-19 pandemic has only sped up the development of digital media, with publishers scrambling to expand distribution and change their online revenue sources.
Digital publishing is still developing and growing. eBook sales increased from 12% in 2013 to 25% of all book sales in 2018. 75% of the money made by the music industry comes from streaming. Even local newspapers like the Boston Globe have more digital subscribers than print subscribers. Three-quarters of subscribers to newspapers like the Financial Times and the New York Times pay for digital-only subscriptions.
Other than the rise of digital subscriptions, the two largest trends in digital publishing today are the usage of audio (such as podcasts and voice search) and artificial intelligence in publishing (such as voice assistants or language processing for automatically categorizing content).