The word is going wired

Vicky Skipp, the regional managerof Adobe Systems in Southeast Asia, is urging traditional publishers to move into a new era of digital publishing.

The US-based firm's Creative Suite 5 and Omniture technologies are now capable of delivering an open, comprehensive digital publishing platform that allows more cost-effective production and distribution of content to a broad audience on a wide variety of digital devices. With this new platform, publishers and advertisers will likely revolutionise how they create and deliver digital content and how audiences will consume it.

Skipp cites Wired magazine on iPad and the New York Times's digital edition as the latest examples of highly-interactive and innovative digital content delivered to readers via a wide range of devices from iPad - the increasingly popular tablet computer - to smart-phones, notebooks and PCs etc.

"The Internet has become the backbone for most devices, while cloud computing, proliferation of new media as well as social computing like Twitter and Facebook are driving these changes (as more and more content is being delivered across various platforms).

"For the audiences, it's about content plus experience - great sound, feeling and immersive on-screen experiences that combine the visual impact of print design, the immediacy of touch interaction and the engagement of interactive elements such as video, audio, animated info-graphics, 360-degree views and more," says Skipp.

In other words, the publishing industry is at a crossroads.

However, the single biggest issue in digital publishing is still how to monetise content properly, as many audiences remain used to the availability of free content on the Web. In this context, Skipp suggests that digital publishers will have to develop new business models that give them flexibility to innovate.

In terms of monetisation, it's also crucial that advertisers are provided with a return on their investment when they invest in new forms of digital ads.

"(In the new era of digital publishing) it's about getting the right content to the right reader at the right time (if you're going to attract advertisers and get their money)," says Skipp.

For brand advertising, the digital platform offers a new paradigm in which readers can enjoy sustained interaction with engaging, immersive ads within the context of digital magazines so that advertisers are given highly targeted ad palcement based on analytic data and get higher return on ad expenditure. This will boost publishers' revenue and profitability.

In terms of production process, Adobe's Indesign software, for example, automates the entire production side of publishers, like what robots do in car factories.

Then, there are Photoshop, Dream Weaver and other software products that allow you to create and assemble contents, be it Web, print, video, audio or graphic into a coherent multimedia content package. Then, there's the software to monetise the targets by analysing and optimising content delivery and viewership.

In fact, there's already a number of digital publishing business models as in the case of Wired magazine on iPad, in which its design is a fresh experience for magazine readers while its articles and ads are highly-interactive. It has been available for two months on iPad and moving to Android-based computer tables and smart-phones. Now, you can buy a specific Wired issue on iPad.

Regarding the New York Times's model, there are now both free pages and subscription-based paid pages on various devices, including desktop-styled papers that can be used online as well as off-line. As for the Wall Street Journal model, the paid weekly subscription currently costs $3.62 per week.

Given such a diverse range of content monetisation, there's now also software to manage the intellectual property rights of digital content so that users can be charged for the right to use the content for one day or one week or one month, depending on their need, after which the content will expire automatically.