Feature Article:
The Journey from Print to Digital
A Publisher’s Quest for Success
A lot of traditional print publishers are adding digital versions of their material to their catalog. Looking to add these formats quickly and inexpensively, many do the same thing: They take their final print output and manually copy it into a digital format, then they edit it to fit the new format — adjust for different pagination and styles, adjust graphics size and placements, add interactions, etc. It’s not very fast or efficient, but they count it a success. However, the digital world continues to expand with more output formats while expecting a decrease in time-to-market. This editing-heavy solution quickly becomes burdensome and the cost of the solution rises.
In a perfect world, publishers want to be able to create their content once, then put it anywhere. They want to define each output format, and be able to “merge” their content into that format automatically. They want to separate the creation of their content from the editing and layout functions so they can add a new output style without having to reinvent their whole process. And they want this new digital format without spending a whole year’s worth of revenues.
In our work with educational publishers, we’ve found that there is a logical, incremental way to implement a true, scalable solution that doesn’t completely disrupt the publishing process or break the bank. It’s a three-phased approach that gives you digital publishing now while building a foundation for any formats the future may hold.
Phase 1: Embracing Single-Source Authoring
Single-sourcing means writing the content once — irrespective of any product or format — and then applying this same content across all of your products. Switching to single-source authoring is more about training than tools. Products are available that enable your authors and editors to work within their traditional editorial workflow using templates for Microsoft Word. Once the content is finalized, software can automatically convert it to a format that is both semantic- and presentation-neutral.
Phase 2: Map Neutral Content to Outputs
Once you have your content in this neutral format, it’s time to design your outputs and how you would like your content presented in each. Since the goal here is to automate what could be a labor-intensive exercise, software plays a larger part. Production processes take the single-source content and automatically create one or more formats — such as print (InDesign), web (HTML), eLearning (SCORM/Flash) or eBook (ePub) — that are clean and consistent. The resultant layouts can be “tweaked” if necessary; but if the outputs are designed correctly, you might change less than 5% of your generated product (in many cases no changes are needed at all).
Phase 3: Get Everything in One Place
To this point in the process, files are simply stored in file directories on your server, with manual workflow and tracking. However, as your content and your outputs grow — and as you add new multi-media assets to supplement your digital content — you may want to invest in a content management system. Adding a CMS is a large undertaking, but it will enable you to find your content and your digital assets, track them through their lifecycle, and even direct the workflow for creating a particular output.
Embracing the new, digital formats means new revenue streams that these new channels can create; but simply tacking a manual digital layout process on the end of a print process is a time-consuming and labor-intensive solution that can eat up all that new revenue. To truly get the most from your most valuable asset — your content — you need to embark on a carefully planned journey that takes you from being just a print publisher to an anywhere publisher.
It could be a perfect (digital) world.