Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Currently viewing the tag: "Platform"
As anyone who’s actually worked within a “vertical” knows, whether from a niche consumer or business-to-business angle (or, heaven help them, for a non-profit organization or political campaign), just because a subset of people share a common passion doesn’t mean they’re a single-minded group that can be engaged in one templated way. Every vertical that presents a viable business opportunity is going to have its own sub-communities and overlapping layers, with some often in direct opposition to others.
Not quite one year to the day it was announced, Seth Godin is shutting The Domino Project down, offering the awkward explanation that “it was a project, not a lifelong commitment to being a publisher of books,” instead of, perhaps, admitting that publishing is harder than it looks if you want to swim at the deep end of the trade pool in the middle of a dramatic transition, as he obliquely acknowledges in many of his noteworthy takeaways.
It will be interesting to see what other publisher can successfully go the Marvel route; with a $2B+ worldwide box office already in for the Avengers’ on-screen storyworld (one that still bizarrely lives in total isolation from the comics), I’m guessing several will make the attempt within the next 2-3 years. Two gaming franchises I think have some serious transmedia potential are Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls and Activision’s Skylanders, though you might be surprised by which one I think has the most potential.
Nash took an honest shot at something he believed in and, more importantly, maintained his integrity throughout the process. While neither Cursor nor Red Lemonade ended up being the “game changers” some thought they might be, one could argue (and so I will) that the publishing industry overall is stronger for the attempt, and what *did* work shouldn’t be lost in the discussion.
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.
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- Why DRM is a Toothless Boogeyman, Ebooks are like Video Games, and Amazon is the Winner
- Rethinking Engagement: Facebook and Permission Marketing
- Ebooks and Libraries: Is it Worth the Effort?
- Moving Beyond THE BOOK; Three Takeaways from #Book2
- 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
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