Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Currently viewing the tag: "new media"
Most magazines, print and digital, are little more than advertising platforms whose readers are defined as “targets”, valued in quantity over quality, and when the advertising revenue stream dries up, the magazines usually fold, readers be damned.
I love data, but the more complex it becomes, the less effective spreadsheets and Powerpoint charts are at presenting it. Enter infographics and the growing field of data visualization, perhaps best personified by Facebook’s hiring of personal infographics guru Nick Felton to work on the visual elements of their new Timeline feature.
Book publishers, on the other hand, have traditionally either focused on “digital” as a secondary medium, or worse, not even as a distinct medium at all, simply a fascimile or marketing channel for their print products. In doing so, they’ve effectively positioned themselves for easier disintermediation, being seen as container manufacturers instead of content curators and community organizers.
“Editorial control” is a four-letter word in my book. It’s a legacy of the pre-participatory era, and journalists, editors, authors, etc. who fight to maintain it, or the illusion of it, are spitting into the wind that should be filling their sails. Credibility is more important than control, and that comes from your community.
While Wall Street and technology pundits continue to devalue those who create and curate content professionally in favor of dumb pipes, content aggregators, and social media pyramid schemes, the fact is, at the end of the day, it all starts with good content. Without it, the digital business is a cork floating on the publishing stream, and the new shiny devices are little more than electronic bricks sinking to the bottom at varying rates of speed.
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Recent Posts
- 5 Career Tips to Survive Publishing’s Digital Shift
- The Myth of “Verticalization” – Community Ain’t Easy
- My Favorite Reads of 2011
- Spinning Dominoes: Don’t Believe the Hype… But DO Learn From It
- Entry Points, Accessibility and Transmedia Potential
- 6Qs: Alex de Campi, Comics Innovator and Provocateur
- Richard Nash on Cursor and the “F” Word
- The Problem With Klout? It Has None
- The Truth About Disruption in Publishing
- Amazon, Libraries and Ownership in the Digital Age
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