We're all content managers now...

More and more, this business we know as Publishing is revolving around the issues of content management. Where once someone would prepare words and images for a particular publication and perhaps keep original manuscripts and transparencies in a filing cabinet, now we're looking at (or already doing) the process of storing data digitally in tagged format in databases, ready to be squirted out into a dozen different formats; we're multiplatforming with a vengeance. Or at least that's what the pundits like to say.

Is this really what's happening? Are we destined to become an industry of datakeepers? Well... yes and no. The DTP revolution in the 1980s didn't mean that we all became traditional typesetters even while we did end up doing our own typesetting, and the broader publishing revolution that's going on around us won't turn us all into database geeks or put us at the mercy of tech-savvy but publishing-ignorant experts. Oh, that does happen, especially to the unwary; we're in a rolling period of transition after all. But these things tend to shake down into forms that we all can use. Think of it like this: the layout tools that are practically given away to consumers now (Apple's Pages for one excellent example) are many times better than the best DTP apps from 20 years ago.

How will this affect content management? Well, we're already being offered free content management tools in the form of blogs, RSS feeds, online diaries, Flikr and similar image services, webmail, social and business networking services, wikis, online office suites... the main differences between these and the £100K bespoke CMS solutions that publishing groups are encouraged to plump for are the level of tailoring and the scale. This will change.

We are all content managers, even those that don't think they are. The tools are getting better, easier and cheaper. Their scope is growing, and their traditional complexities are fading into the background.

The digital future is now in the high street

There's been a lot of fuss made about the recent ebook reader launches this past year. Amazon's Kindle made the biggest waves a few months ago - despite being uglier than the back end of a bus and only shipping in the US, and Sony's new eReader device also made headlines.

Something that's a more important milestone than any individual product, though, is the fact that WHSmith has started listing ebook readers in its online store. It doesn't offer either Amazon's or Sony's product - instead, it shows (as of early October) the Cybook Gen3 eBook Reader and the iRex iLiad eBook Reader Book Edition. Like a number of others the iRex is still an eye-wateringly expensive device; 1 penny short of £400, but the CyBook Gen3 is £220 cheaper and uses the same 'e-ink' screen technology. Still expensive, but much more reasonable.

These devices don't spell the death of books, but they do signal one way that publishing is evolving. And now that they are sold by a well-known high street name and are edging towards being actually affordable - we're approaching the point where forward-thinking publishers should start evaluating this potential new market.

For those that do, a few words of advice...
First, pass on at least some of the savings involved with going all-digital; don't offer a cursory 10% off the RRP of the printed equivalent.
Second, don't fall into the 'proprietary format' trap; use open standards.
And third, consider the differences, don't just replicate current thinking. The car was not a horseless carriage, and the ebook reader is not a book.

Which begs the question: What new approaches to content and publishing does the ebook allow?

Blurb - Arts London's Publishing Annual magazine goes digital

Blurb, which is published once a year by a group of MA Publishing students, has gone digital. According to Course Director Des O'Rourke, this gives it a significantly wider reach than the print edition; "The 2008 print edition was a bumper 68 pages. The 3,000 print run was quickly snapped up by students in the six colleges. So, in co-operation with Ceros, one of the names behind the ground-breaking Flash-based web magazine technology, Online Blurb uses the same publishing engine as Maire Claire, FHM and Top Gear and the new interactive online magazines Monkey, Welt and iGizmo."

Besides extending reach, the Online Blurb includes additional features, the first being an exclusive interview with Tyler Brule of Wallpaper* and Monocle fame. Online Blurb can be viewed at www.blurbmag.co.uk.
 

Was Time Out banned in China?

The English-language edition of Time Out in China, 'Time Out Beijing', has apparently been banned from distribution by the country's censors, The Times reported back in June. The real reasons why this has happened aren't clear; it seems that China's General Administration of Press and Publications took this step because the magazine 'lacks a required printing permit'. More ominously, an official statement went as far as to deny knowledge of the existence of the title altogether, saying "If there is such a magazine, it wasn't approved by us in the first place."
Time Out Beijing has been published for the last three and a half years without a problem (two years earlier the Chinese Rolling Stone was closed less than a month after publication for the same problem), and it is said to be one of the country's best-known and most popular English language magazines.

Curiously, there is no indication of this event to be seen in the Chinese section of the main Time Out site, http://www.timeout.com/cn/en/beijing/. Things get slightly more confusing still when we checked the Whois details for the domain indicated by various bloggers, www.timeoutcn.com, as it had only been registered in January 2008. It looks similar to the main Timeout.com pages, although the underlying structure is rather different. It also has very different registrant details (which are not explained by comparing those to the host company's details either).
However, in light of a statement from a Time Out Beijing spokesman ('"It is not convenient to say" why the June edition had been banned') it would appear that this wasn't the squashing of a counterfeit title but the gagging of the real thing.

So, it seems fairly clear that, given that it has been banned, this is all part of a massive effort by the administration to step up security as the Olympics approaches. The impact this will have is hardly likely to affect security either way, but it will make it harder for visitors - Olympic and otherwise - to know where to go for food, drink and a general good time. Perhaps this kind of frivolous behaviour by Westerners is what's getting up the nose of the authorities? More seriously, will the GAPP relent once the Olympics is over, or is this the end for Time Out Beijing?

In what seems almost like a political point being made, the link to the online edition of the magazine loads the complete set of pages... with every one of them blank. See http://www.timeoutcn.com/Magazine/TimeOut_0806_English/default.htm

NOTE: the content now appears, so the blank pages may have been a technical glitch. Was this just a hiccup that got blown out of all proportion, or has Time Out effected some kind of deal with China's GAPP?