Key Principles for Publishing for the Digital Future

Over the past year experts in the educational publishing industry contributed to the AEP series, “Publishing for the Digital Future.” From trends in the classroom, to marketing and pricing strategies, to professional development in the new era, the series focused on highlighting actions that publishers could take now. Below is a list of action principles culled from the series. You can comment on any of the principles or read the entries in this blog under the category Publishing for the Digital Future.

1. Computers are a part of children’s every day lives. If your company does not incorporate a digital strategy into its mission, you are missing a key opportunity to attract and interact with them.

2. Stay true to your mission and your brand, even when going digital.

3. Go digital because it will benefit the customer and not because it will make your company cool.

4. Digital products should be only one piece of your growth strategy; you need a content strategy and a market strategy too.

5. Have a set goal, e.g., creating a new revenue stream, for going digital.

6. Communicate successes and failures to all staff so that they understand the process.

7. Your content, not the medium you publish it in, is your greatest asset. Change your publishing process so that you focus on the content first and not the eventual publishing destination.

8. Prioritize your design time; spend time on the features used by 90 percent of your customers and not the special additions for the remaining 10 percent.

9. Make sure ALL of your content is accessible via a Content Management System.

10. Content should be easily adaptable to other languages and cultures.

11. Tag your content to skills and curriculum goals, so it can be easily adapted.

12. Digital publishing should not mean providing the same information in a new medium. Adapt the content to the strengths of the digital format.

13. Think about embracing business models that combine open-source and proprietary modules.

14. E-products don’t necessarily replace print publications–they just serve a different customer–and tend to increase sales of paper and ink materials.

15. Don’t automatically price your print and e-materials differently; the value is in the content.

16. Students are more tech-savvy than most educators and publishers. In order to engage the students, you need to understand how they use technology.

17. Harness the social aspects of the web, a la Wikipedia, and allow users to comment on and contribute to the value of your content. (Understand the social constructs of the new web world where users and

publishers are created equal.)

18. Your product must either integrate seamlessly within the existing processes of teaching and learning or replace it in its entirety.

19. Have an overall company strategy for policing copyright. Due to current technology, paper products are no safer than electronic ones.

20. Include proper professional development–it is essential for teachers integrating new products into the classroom.

21. Educators have a lot of information to sift through. Provide them with valuable data over technical glitz.

22. Marketing in the digital era requires publishers to shorten their messages and ask their customers’ permission to speak with them.

23. Key characteristics of a strong supplemental publisher: speed, spotting the unexpected need, sensitivity to generational changes, observation and understanding of policy shifts, and smart thinking.

24. A computer program or product can never replace the human element in education.