News
How To Transform Your Editorial Department into a Profit Center
January 27, 2014
News
January 27, 2014
Traditionally, many publishers have treated their Editorial Department as a cost center. Valued? Yes. A Core Competency? Certainly. But it may be difficult to wrap your head around the idea that the editorial department could become a profit center. You probably are accustomed to the idea that it will only ever be treated as a necessary cost. But, what if Editorial had tools empowering them to create new products or designate content as pay-per-view, along with reducing the cost of producing content for your publications and website?
With an Enterprise Publishing System (EPS), your editorial department can generate revenue. It’s all about increasing efficiency, eliminating technical obstacles to innovation and monetizing more content to remedy the deadly sins of editorial:
You've probably got your own list, but you get the picture. You've got to start by reducing friction, eliminating silos and helping Editorial operate with profit in mind rather than simply keeping up.
How?
1) Increase Editorial Efficiencies. It’s true, an EPS can significantly increase your editorial efficiencies and this is where you can start to shave costs.
If this makes you curious, you can read more about how editorial efficiencies add value.
2) Build Efficiencies, Company Wide. Eliminate functional silos across your company, with your EPS acting as the glue that connects your publications to the larger organization. You can apply editorial best practices across publications and across departments.
What’s more, the editorial hours saved can translate into hundreds of more hours per month that your directors can apply company-wide, to monitor and manage the work of more far-flung enterprises. Your EPS can function as a management asset, with reporting to identify inefficiencies, while recognizing, developing and rewarding top producers.
3) Employ a Web-First Strategy. There is no denying that web-first is the way of modern publishing. An EPS allows you to create your content once and deliver it via multiple channels. Adopting the strategy will only keep you ahead of the game, and ultimately not only save you money, but also allow you to deliver more so you can generate more revenue. Gone are the days when you develop your content for print and then must adapt it for the web. Your content flows to your website, RSS, email, social media, tablet and mobile, digital and print editions.
4) Leverage Multiple Revenue Streams. With an EPS, you aren’t limited to one or two revenue sources anymore. At one time, you probably relied on subscriptions and advertising to keep you afloat. But now you can test and innovate, with pay per view options for articles or issues, subscriptions, memberships, site access, premium content access, sponsored listings, events, ads, buyers guides and more. And remember, it’s all managed from one place, so additional revenue streams do not equate to additional work or new inefficiencies to grapple with.
We’ll continue in our next post by discussing how to further monetize your content and increase editorial value with an EPS. Stay tuned.