{"id":17806,"date":"2017-09-27T10:14:59","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T17:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-dev.claravine.com\/?p=17806"},"modified":"2024-08-30T21:55:52","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T21:55:52","slug":"we-are-all-publishers-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.claravine.com\/we-are-all-publishers-now\/","title":{"rendered":"We are All Publishers Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I spent 15 years working in the online publishing industry. One of the last professional events I attended while still on the media was an IAB-affiliated event about the \u201cfuture of media and advertising.\u201d I recall one of the speakers ignoring the publishers in the room completely. He directed his remarks toward the vendors and big brand players in the room. His advice to them was \u201cwork toward a future where your organization produces content that is so good, you\u2019ll put the Industry Trade Magazine in your market right out of business&#8230;\u201d<br \/>\nSince I worked for a big B2B trade publisher at the time, I found this idea kind of out there. But it definitely stuck with me.<!--more--><br \/>\nAfter making the transition to marketing on the vendor side, that remark has come back to mind several times. While I think there\u2019s a bit of hyperbole to relinquish there (I don\u2019t see industry publishers going away overnight, if ever) I have become a convert to the great equalization happening in publishing and media. The speaker at that event was more right than he was wrong.<br \/>\nIt goes without saying that there are many, many ways to find an audience these days. That\u2019s not to say it\u2019s an <i>easy<\/i> thing to do, but the tools are there for the diligent. Every day I\u2019m bombarded with messages from people who want to teach me \u201cthe secrets\u201d of getting 100k twitter followers, or of quitting my job to make my living from Instagram (which, to be honest, sounds very stressful).<br \/>\nIt\u2019s so obvious and intuitive that social media has ruptured traditional media, that I think it\u2019s worth backtracking a bit to remember why the industry-media tradition existed &#8212; and the strengths that gave it a lock on people\u2019s attention in the first place.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Networks\/Audiences. In the pre-social media world, Publishers\u2019 main strength arose from the networks they built. Brands that wanted cheap PR coverage were willing to let writers inside the curtain, in a way they wouldn\u2019t do for a competitor. A publisher who had success at becoming an insider in this way soon found they had access to more and more information, in a virtuous cycle of reputation-building. Reputation = Subscribers. Publishers became the central node for information-sharing &#8212; even for finding a new job within a given industry.<\/li>\n<li>Expertise. My personal feeling is that many journalists and writers who position themselves as \u201cexperts\u201d are exaggerating. Nevertheless, the sort of insider access that publishers have been privy to does create a position of strength. Publishers often hear things (ideas\/trends) before they become common knowledge. If they hear the same things from many sources, anecdote can become data. Scoops = Subscribers. And there is value simply in looking at industries as a whole ecosystem &#8212; something vendors may resist.<\/li>\n<li>Objectivity. Again, a claim that can be overblown (publishers are human, and have been known to play favorites, e.g., anointing a brand they like as the \u201cnext big thing\u201d). Still, publishers know they walk a fine line of credibility. Lose your readers\u2019 trust and you have lost everything. The great media winnowing of the last few years has seen dozens of trade publications fall in just this way. Newer rivals were able to accuse them of putting their editorial up for sale to sponsors. Trust = Subscribers. Those media outlets that are standing are those that have managed this reality best.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nAs a brand marketer or vendor, it\u2019s worth thinking through this, because the great equalization in media means that almost any brand has the ability to build these strengths independent of any traditional media or platform.<br \/>\nIs there anyone in your industry niche that has greater subject matter expertise around the solution you provide then you do? It\u2019s highly unlikely. Is it possible to build your own independent network and audience, using platforms like LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter? Does that question even need answering in 2017? Is it possible to use customer testimonials, influencer-advocates and 3rd party product review sites to approximate some of the strengths that traditional media\u2019s objectivity brought to bear? Well&#8230;<br \/>\nThis last point is the hardest for sure, and it\u2019s where a lot of vendors\u2019 efforts fall short. Remember the strengths that bring in subscribers? Reputation, Networks, Leading-edge Insights and Trust. Some vendors give less emphasis to trust-building because of a short-term focus on creating leads and closing sales. That\u2019s a shame. When you start thinking like a publisher, you think about a long-term relationship with your audience. Your audience is composed of people. People are subscribers first &#8212; they want to learn. If they turn into leads at some point down the road, that\u2019s great. But maybe they won\u2019t ever be leads, maybe they\u2019ll just be readers who like your content and share it with their network. That\u2019s great too.<br \/>\nIf we\u2019re all publishers now &#8212; and I\u2019d argue that it\u2019s valuable to think this way &#8212; it\u2019s prudent to think of our audience as subscribers, rather than leads. We can think about content that informs and educates our audience &#8212; content that tells the truth. Even if it doesn\u2019t help you make the sale today, it will help tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I spent 15 years working in the online publishing industry. One of the last professional events I attended while still on the media was an IAB-affiliated event about the \u201cfuture of media and advertising.\u201d I recall one of the speakers ignoring the publishers in the room completely. He directed his remarks toward the vendors and big brand players in the room. His advice to them was \u201cwork toward a future where your organization produces content that is so good, you\u2019ll put the Industry Trade Magazine in your market right out of business&#8230;\u201d Since I worked for a big B2B trade publisher at the time, I found this idea kind of out there. But it definitely stuck with me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":17807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"class_list":["post-17806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>We are All Publishers Now - Claravine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brands can now match publishers&#039; strengths: expertise, networks, and objectivity. Treat your audience as subscribers. Learn how.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.claravine.com\/we-are-all-publishers-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We are All Publishers Now - Claravine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brands can now match publishers&#039; strengths: expertise, networks, and objectivity. Treat your audience as subscribers. 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