I've been pretty tardy on the blogging lately, what with my real job and actually having a social life and all. I've seen a lot of stuff I've wanted to write about in the last two months and I've been tagging the interesting ones in del.cio.us for follow-up. So I'll be cleaning out the closet for a while, starting now.
This article from early May in the NY Times on IDG's transition from a print to web-based model is, I believe, a harbinger of things to come for many others in the publishing industry. IDG took InfoWorld to an all-online model in April 2007 and now the magazine's total ad revenue just eclipsed its revenue from the year prior when it was both print and online. Even more significant, it's profitable now, where before as a print/online hybrid it was operating at a loss.
The article points out that technology publications are ahead of the curve in terms of online migration, but it’s clear that more trade and mainstream publications will follow, especially the ones targeting niche communities.
One of the things from the Times article that captured my attention was Eric Knorr's statement about how they had changed their style to accommodate the web. They weren't just changing their delivery channel; they were changing their style to accommodate the web-only audience.
Yet as a Web-only publication, InfoWorld is very different from the bygone print edition. Gone, Mr. Knorr says, are the long pieces of more than 3,000 words, with anecdotes and narrative, examining how technology had transformed some company or industry. Instead, he said, the key online is packaging information into “digestible chunks,” typically of no more than a page of text or so, sometimes in lists of “10 things to do” to solve some technology problem in companies.
I think there is a corollary here for PR, which is also transitioning to direct communication with customers via the web. Press releases need to be shorter, focused and communicate only one-to-three primary messages at most. There is a time for longer, strategic announcements but overall I think these are over-used and certainly under-read.
I was reading a three page press release from a major software company the other day with a long, gratuitous quote from the CEO, an analyst quote, a customer quote, and four subheaded sections of text describing in detail some different aspect of their strategy. There was a lot of good information in there, at least until the point where I fell asleep. No doubt it made everybody in their pr department feel good, but It would have been much more effective in three separate, focused announcements.
This will appeal not only to the press but also the customers - a much wider audience to whom, whether we choose to recognize it or not, we are now speaking directly.
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