Introduction and Relevance
Publishing is a bellwether industry. In this blog let’s examine Top Digital Publishing Trends in 2023. Whatever happens in the world of publishing tends to impact trends in the marketing world as well. The reason is, whether content is meant for the web, social media, or print. it goes through a certain production process which has its roots in the editorial workflows of the publishing world. As Digital media has become more prominent in the last two decades, disrupting a 500 year old industry. The marketing industry has followed suit, promptly adopting trends from digital publishing to design its own campaigns and strategies.
Top Trends
Digital Publishing is an evolving field. Technological evolution of the publishing workflow and consumer devices is ongoing, and consumers’ consumption patterns change on a yearly basis. 2023 will see a spillover of the Covid effect as content publishers adopt and adapt some of the phenomena that came to the fore during the pandemic-related isolation.
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Subscription Models:
Pay-as-you-go OTT platforms are all the rage, even as pre-packaged cable TV bundles fall out of favor. However people quite like the choice and control of paying for individually priced offerings. Digital media is taking advantage of that same accepted behavior by offering access to users for a monthly fee. With continued evolution of the Freemium model and explicit appeals to readers/viewers to “pay for quality content”. Digital publishers are able to project an image of fairness and transparency and dissociate themselves from advertising influences in their content selection. The truth is advertising is certainly a significant source of income for digital publishers, but the pay-wall creates an impression in subscribers’ minds that they can choose to not be exposed to ads, and also associate the exclusive content they consume as somehow of better journalistic pedigree than what’s available for free.
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Interactive Content:
Digital publications will continue to incorporate more interactive elements- videos, audio clips, live Tweets, interactive simulations, etc. This will be as true of major publications like global news channels as blogs. The big reason is engagement. As mainstream consumption patterns tilt from reading towards audio-visual. Publishers realize that the key to keeping consumers’ engaged is staving off monotony and increasing engagement via interactivity. As technology to produce and embed video and simulations becomes more accessible we expect a convergence between the Text and AV content worlds. Interactive content can also help make a publication more accessible to users with alternative needs. Like visually challenged consumers, where text-to-speech software and video alt-text can help them consume the content.
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Personalization:
Digital content, from news to marketing emails is delivered in a “mass communication” style that harkens back to the limitations of printed content. Where economy of scale meant standardization was key. But in today’s world, consumers are inundated with choice, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. However one way to overcome this and stand out from the crowd is personalization. It isn’t just about clever emails seemingly written by a person, addressed by name to each recipient. Instead, it is the use of intelligent analytics to go deeper into individual users’ needs, motivations, and preferences, and deliver them content when their require it, in the format they like, at just the right time. In addition 2023 will see continued innovation in that direction.
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Responsive Content:
Most digital publishers are now savvy about user behavior across platforms, from mobile phones to desktops. However, as this variation continues to govern people’s lives, better technologies and techniques to ensure content is presented optimally across various formats and devices to ensure users get the best experience immaterial of the context and method of consumption.
Conclusion
Digital Publishing will continue to adapt and change to adjust to users’ changing needs. However it will increasingly incorporate advanced tools, including AI tools to become faster in its reaction. Such sophistication can be overwhelming for new digital publishers who’d rather focus on creating content. If that’s the case, consider partnering with an experienced digital publishing partner like Manipal Digital. With decades of experience in epublishing, Manipal Digital teams up with publishers to incorporate modern workflows and can manage your entire content conversion, adaptation across formats and devices, and even delivery to your users, so you can keep making superb content.
