A Blueprint for Book Publishing Transformation: Content Management and Metadata Across Publishing Systems

Gilbane San FranciscoMay 19, 2010Session P3: 2:40 p.m.-3:40 p.m.

David R. GuenetteSenior AnalystThe Gilbane Group, a Division of Outsell, Inc.

Overview of Session

• Introductions• “Blueprint” study now underway•Interesting preliminary findings

• Eric Freese, Aptara Corporation, on XML in the workflow• Todd Tillinghast, Snowfall Press, on

digital printing•Q&A

About the Gilbane Group

Acquired by Outsell, Inc. in February 2010 Long-time boutique analyst and consulting

firm focused on content management technology

Practice areas include publishing, social media, search, and XML

Research has tended to be qualitative, such as case studies and best practices

Consulting has included long-term engagements with major publishers and associations

About our Research

Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions - Growth, Trends, and Best Practices (2009)

Collaboration and Social Media (2009) Beyond the eBook- Trends in Digital Book Publishing

(2009) Social Publishing with Drupal: Building Success with

Content and Community (2010) A Blueprint for Book Publishing Transformation: Seven

Essential Processes to Re-Invent Publishing (2010) One of three eBook studies planned for this year

“Blueprint” Study

•BISG is a research sponsor, partnering with The Gilbane Group• Six vendor sponsors support the

research• Publication date: June 2010• Freely distributed

What is “Blueprint” After?

•How book publishers are pursuing digital publishing such as ebooks•What barriers are book publishers

facing in moving toward digital publishing•What the “state of art” is for digital

book publishing

What are the seven essential processes?

1. Planning

2. Editorial and production

3. Rights and Royalties

4. Manufacturing

5. Promotion and marketing

6. Sales and licensing

7. Distribution and fulfillment

These processes are recursive, complex…

…and often not integrated

Many publishers are not “digital ready”

•Too caught up in legacy product models•Not agile enough to respond to new opportunities•Too busy bailing to navigate well

What happens if you are not “digital ready”?

•Based on our current research•Interviews and case studies•And client engagements

Planning…

• Print-centric planning modelDoesn’t accurately or flexibly allow for digital products, their cost, or their revenue

•Mindset of “digital-after-the-fact”Blinds the publisher to significant digital opportunities, including digital-only products

Digital transformation in planning…

• Business intelligence becomes a key editorial planning tool

• Developing new content products from more efficient and granular content management expands product range and number

• Early meta-data capture supports the development of interoperating and transactional processes for publishers

• Will require systems and business analyst-type roles

Editorial and production …

Content not optimized for digital delivery:•Not “chunked” for easier product derivatives•Trapped in proprietary and opaque file formats

•Content is overly expensive to produce in newer digital formats

Digital transformation in editorial and production …

• XML-First (theory) and XML-Early (the realistic probability) requires more taxonomy and DTD-type/schema content structure analysis efforts within editorial roles• Copy-editing functions will grow more

important as meta-data and structural tagging implementers and QA front-liners

Rights and royalties …

Content not optimized for digital:•Overly complex and time-consuming work to track, manage R&R, especially with backlist•Hard to calculate and support newer digital business models•Barriers to new business models, even as there is an urgent need to launch and test new business models

Digital transformation in rights and royalties …

• Contracts must change to conform to a wide range of alternative editions• Contracts must include chunk-based remuneration

conventions • Integrate rights and royalty metadata with content • Require system integration specialists to work with

R&R processes • “Product Manager” roles needed

Manufacturing process…

Non-optimized manufacturing processes:•Overly costly and complex steps to produce different formats, outputs, and custom products•Challenges in fully adopting digital printing, on-demand printing, and other alternatives•An inability to properly manage and curate digital assets

Digital transformation in manufacturing…

• Significantly supports the use of digital printing • Digital asset distribution platforms and/or

services will increasingly drive automated distribution to print vendors and out into the supply chain• Improved automation will depend on the

success of ERP and EDI systems integration within title information management platforms• It remains unclear whether existing TIM

platform vendors will take the lead

Promotion and marketing process…

Non-optimized promotion and marketing processes: • Overly complex and time-consuming steps in

using and sharing title information and for distributing all types of promotion and marketing material to all relevant supply chain partners• Inability to readily support critical social media

outlets for product promotion or to easily expand discoverability • Inability to properly control and manage

marketing assets

Digital transformation in promotion and marketing …

• Digital asset management platforms will become more common • Pertinent metadata and relevant title content information is

captured earlier in the publishing processes• Customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain

management (SCM), and syndication-based distribution of marketing information will reduce marketing staff but require greater technology skill sets• Social media and communities will require book publishers

to retrain marketers as social community managers, who will need to interact with planning process-level product managers

Sales and licensing process…

Non-optimized sales and licensing process:• Inability to generate custom publishing

products• Inability to automate sales and management

of subsidiary rights• Higher costs and complexity in trying to

expand sales channels, including direct sales through ecommerce

Digital transformation in sales and licensing…

• Supports title “discoverabilty” and automation of CRM systems with ecommerce platforms and direct sales

• Requires tight integration with promotions and marketing process

• Significant changes in sales models, however, must wait upon the integration of the various publishing processes, largely through the application of XML-early repositories and adequate business metadata

• Pressures on brick and mortar book stores—and print itself—will greatly increase

.

Distribution and fulfillment processes…

Non-optimized sales and licensing process:

• Cumbersome and expensive one-off mechanisms to pull and push content across an expanding number of supply chains

• Inability to automate transactional and distribution processes for digital products

Digital transformation in distribution and fulfillment…

• Book publishers will have to build up expertise for ERP and EDI process integration, as the content and titles themselves carry the intelligent meta-data to take automation to its next level• Warehouse and fulfillment costs will be better

constrained, and digital printing will prove to be a key element of these savings, through the use of DADs, just-in-inventory, returns reductions, and lower transportation and shipping costs, to name a few cost reduction areas

Digital Transformation and the Points of No Return

• Book Publishers: Start with what you know• Digital Publishing Technology and Service

Vendors: Start with what your customer—the book publisher—knows • Plus ca change…Non!… The more digital

publishing processes interoperate, the less publishing stays the same• See what the innovators are doing• Pilot, test, measure• It’s not all or nothing

What We’re Finding Out

• XML-Early is well along•Digital workflow is well understood•Royalties are a problem, but not a

deal-breaker• Systems interoperability is more

theory than practice•Digital printing is a BIG DEAL to book

publishers

And Take the Blueprint Survey!

10-minute survey seeks to gain detailed information about what is really happening among the full spectrum of book publishers related to ebook and digital publishing efforts, and the "pain points" and barriers encountered

 http://Publishing.questionpro.com

 

David R. GuenetteThe Gilbane Group, a Division of Outsell, Inc.

Cambridge, MAdavid@gilbane.com

www.gilbane.com/xmlwww.twitter.com/billtrippe

617-497-9443, ext 219