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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
