Outsourcing Content Origination & Authoring:

Closing the Publishing Loop

Thad McIlroyThe Future of Publishing, Inc.

Presented withInnodata Isogen

December 16, 2008

My Background

20 years studying the intersection of technology and print publishing, working with publishers, printers & vendors

5 years with Seybold Seminars Gilbane senior associate in the publishing

practice (content management)

More Recent Background

10 years studying the impact of the Internet on graphic communications

Major focus now: The future of publishing XML content workflows Publishing automation

Writing for PrintAction, Learned Publishing, Gilbane.com, The Seybold Report, TheFutureOfPublishing.com

The Web Sitewww.thefutureofpublishing.com

Short Outline

Content workflows Looking at offshoring Looking at content origination processes Taking outsourcing to its logical

conclusion

Does Your Workflow Resemble This?

© 2006 The New Yorker

More Than Offshoring

“If clients can engage outsourcing to become more competitive, it creates an entirely different paradigm than simply ‘shipping jobs offshore.’”

Phil Fersht, ZDNet, 11/30/08

Step 1 It’s difficult to imagine that there was a

time when publishers felt that their businesses should actually be printing the books they sold

Today even some large newspapers – the last holdouts for inhouse services – are outsourcing printing

Step 2

As the publishing world turned digital, we learned that text and data entry was more economical and efficient when outsourced offshore

Step 3

Next we discovered that project management and editorial were ideal candidates for outsourcing, generally accompanied by SGML or XML tagging services

What About Content

Origination?

A Time to Reconsider Whether...

Strictly speaking: Content is king! Content defines our brand! Content differentiates us from the

competition!

Content is Always Key

If not King, then at least a part of the royal family

But what does this mean in real terms?

Content Must Be…

Pertinent Accurate Timely…particularly online

What Is the Cost of Content?

Most expensive: in-house Most difficult to control: myriad

freelancers Least expensive, but most likely to fail

the timeliness test: archival content — is it still up-to-date?

More on the Cost of Content

Both in-house writers and freelancers are expensive

Many publishers can no longer justify the expense when an economical, reliable and high-quality alternative is available

The Offshore Option

Managed by a large organization that specializes in content management

Subject matter experts, devoted to a single task: continuity

Significant cost reductions

Summary

Publishers are fond of traditions; traditions have served them well

Yet publishing is changing rapidly Offshoring is proven from data entry

through the editorial process Though less well-known, it is also proven

for content origination

The Publisher of the Future?

Final Thoughts

“A tradition is only an innovation that worked.”

The existing traditions of publishing are being assaulted from all directions...it’s a time for renewed innovation

Never say never: From Twitter to outsourcing content origination, the onus is on each of us to embrace robust change, and to create new traditions

Thank you

thad@theFutureofPublishing.com