5 Things Can Help the Development of Print Media

In my last article I said print media will not die, because print media’s “weight”, “sound”, “tactility”, “smell”, “enjoyment” and other benefits are still preferred by quantities of people within a relatively long time period. However, we should realize that with the development of media technology our reading behaviors and reading habits are changing gradually. Print media are facing severe challenges from digital media. What we can do is adopt necessary measures to enhance the development and improve the competitiveness of print media.

The quality of content should come first anyway

Content is always the soul of a medium. And what makes readers or audiences moved is fundamentally the content. For print media, we should place more emphasis on it; this is because print media have been facing big challenges from digital media these days and we should give people sufficient reasons for these questions before they can take out their wallets:

• Why should I buy this newspaper, magazine or book while there is something similar on the Internet for FREE?!


• Why should I buy it while I can easily retrieve the content from the net whenever I want?


• Why should I buy it while I can conveniently read and share with others on various digital devices?

In these cases, you should first focus on the quality of the content, then tell people the content is not the same as the one on the net and it’s worth buying though there’re some shortages in other aspects.

Adopt new technology and process during manufacturing

There are lots of new and advanced technology and process emerging in the printing industry in recent years. Print media should keep up with the pace of technological changes when providing high-quality content.

The aims of adopting new technology and process during manufacturing are to lower production costs, shorten the production cycle and create clearer pictures, as well as use more creative ways to display the content. Actually there’s already lots of new technology existing in the industry and maybe we can attach mini digital screens to books or magazines someday.

Make full use of QR code to enrich and vivify the content

Today we are in the digital and Internet era, no one can escape. Developing in this era, print media should not ignore the “opportunities” offering by digital media and the Internet, or will only be left far behind by the era.

QR code is the best interface to connect real and virtual world so far. It is known to all that there’re countless people owning at least one smart phone can scan the codes and get on line, whenever and wherever. That is to say a QR code can be a magic code for print media if used properly and flexibly.

Publishers should have a comprehensive planning for the content and the two communications centers – offline and online. Then consider placing QR codes in the right areas according to actual needs, so as to let readers get more details, watch relevant videos and audios, join in corresponding discussions and share the content.

Fully integrate with online media in the whole operation process

Social thinking and social business are ones of the hottest topics in recent years.

Everyone can perceive technology has been making our life more colorful; meanwhile, it has been constantly changing the way we think and do business.

More and more cases have perfectly demonstrated the power and effectiveness of the Internet and online media performing in a company’s daily operation. It is increasingly necessary for a company to integrate online media in different parts of its daily operation. For print media this integration probably covers:

• Catch market demands, changes and trends through data analysis both online and offline;


• Carry out content planning with the help of the public using social platforms;


• Implement comprehensive propagandizing from the beginning of the planning, to get continuous attention;


• Make use of the power of various influencers, PR events, seminars and games to make people tweet about you;


• Use online and offline ways to do selling with some stimulations like lottery;


• Organize discussions and provide a convenient way for readers to communicate with each other;


• Get feedbacks from readers’ comments and votes in different types of media, to gain suggestions for next production; etc.

Different types of print media may have different practices, but remember the principles are: 1) you should not concentrate on a single medium, integration is the king; 2) the integrations ought to be throughout the whole process of your operation; 3) don’t be shy to make full use of the public with the help of the net, social platforms or other digital technologies.

In conclusion, the suggestions above require you to have the ability of social thinking and social practicing. Putting your “thoughts” into practice and trying to transform into a social business are the way you go.

Embrace socializing and keep socializing

In fact what we’re talking in this part should work with the measures mentioned above, especially “integration”. The reason why we emphasize “socializing” here is that socialization is originally the power to promote the growth of human beings and the progress of civilization.

The Internet and numerous social platforms have been making great contributions to stimulating one of human’s important instincts – socializing. Faced with challenges, print media have no choice but show a positive attitude to social activities and to be active in social media. Don’t be shy to shout out your voices in social media, make people know more about your situations and become your friends. Your “friends” can give a hand to give you ideas, buy your products and spread your brand.

via Business 2 Community http://www.business2community.com/business-innovation/5-things-can-help-development-print-media-0698815?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-things-can-help-development-print-media