Now, I ask you—the publisher—whether you’re devoting enough corporate energy, resources and financial backing to your editorial staff in order to actually produce an indispensable editorial package? If the answer is yes, then why are you charging so little for such a valuable product? Ask the Economist how it feels about its edit and its worth. Why do you think it can charge a premium and you can’t? What makes it so special? You guessed it—its edit is worth that price, or so the reader believes, and that is all that matters.
The answer to the publishing industry’s woes is to provide something worth paying for. For far too long we have been lured with the easy money and wicked ways of our advertising mistress. Well, in the past few years we got dumped. And it hurts. But I say we pick ourselves up out of the gutter and find our self-worth once again. Stop firing the editors and writers, and start paying for the production of excellence. There is no other choice.
via Publishing Executive.
8 Comments
Well, duh.
’nuff said.
Let that also be a message that goes out to online publishers. I, for one, am tired of requests to provide content for credit alone.
I work at a publication in the northwest. Our editor has told us directly to “Lower the bar, put up as many videos and photo galleries as you can. We need hits.”
Now why would anyone come to a web site with such a philosophy?
Worth paying for? Not really.
Unfortunately, the masses mostly dictate what is produced. Look at what happened to TV programming – serious actors who expect to get paid for their craft are being replaced by reality TV and all the Kardashian-like tabloid whores. In music, producers with production money, in many instances, are making the albums – not the artists. Why? Too many people are letting revenues drive the content – not the other way around.
I wish these entities would understand there IS a market for good material – I, for one, don’t want the masses to be the arbiters of good taste. If the content is good enough, as this post suggests, I believe niche markets, with discerning readers, WILL thrive. So I second Kate’s response – if they want content, pay for it – don’t just give “exposure” (i.e. – if they kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, they will end up will brown eggs).
I’ve been writing for years that as information gets more and more abundant one of the most critical issues will be editing – I still believe that. Thanks Rob.
I think it’s a great statement.
You just hit the head of the proverbial nail as to why the American newspaper industry is currently publishing its obituary on its balance sheets with red ink.
I worked in newspapers and print media for 13 years before the rug was yanked from under me. I watched as quality became devalued by publishers who were focused like a laser on attracting advertising clients without really considering that without readers, the advertisers would go somewhere else. So the game became massaging circulation numbers rather than focusing on building value in the product. The joke that followed likened the publisher to the fool who would trip over pennies while thousand-dollar bills blew out the window.
Newspaper publishers have sought the lowest common denominator for too long and it shows. As readership falls, so goes the advertising.
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