Get ready to pay for content: February 05, 2001 issue of New Thinking

February 05, 2001 New Thinking:
Get ready to pay for content

Website content management

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February 05, 2001

Get ready to pay for content

By Gerry McGovern

Between 1975 and 1995 the average academic journal price rose from $39 to $284 in the United States, almost twice the rate of inflation. In 1995, Forbes magazine stated that, “It's hard to imagine a sweeter business than publishing academic journals,” reporting that Reed Elsevier, a leader in academic publishing, had pre-tax profits of 40% on $225 million in journal sales.

This is the dirty little secret of the information society and economy. While technology is reducing certain costs of production for content, the overall costs of quality content have in fact spiralled. Can this increase in costs all be laid at the feet of publishers who are creaming off fat profits? And if so, why hasn’t competition had some impact in keeping prices at a more reasonable level?

Those who have to run a professional website will have some understanding of why publishing quality content is such an expensive process. They will quite likely have discovered another dirty little secret, this time from the technology industry. It is that technology invariably over-promises and under-delivers, particularly when it comes to content. We have all suffered the silicon snake oil merchants who promised that for $1,000 you’d get up on the Web and reach a marketplace of millions.

In academia, the cost of getting a quality article ready for publication can range from $2,000 to $4,000 dollars. Think about it. That report sitting on your desk could have cost more than the computer it sits beside. People simply don’t realize how expensive it is to publish a quality article. The Web certainly reduces some of these costs by allowing for more efficient publishing processes, but it can never eliminate the central cost. Quality people create quality content and quality people don’t come cheap.

On the Web we live a great illusion. We have become drunk on free content, believing that the party will never end. Well, a lot of parties are over, and the free content party will soon be over too. The reason why so much content is free on the Web is because it is leeching off the current high profits in print publishing.

As a result of the content price explosion, libraries around the world have seriously cut back on the number of print journals they subscribe to. Personal subscriptions have dropped even more dramatically. The economic model for print is simply not viable for increasingly quantities of content. What is even less viable is a model whereby both print and Web versions are published, as this adds to rather than reduces the costs of production. This situation must change. Otherwise, increasing numbers of the information workforce will be denied access to vital content.

Over the next five years, what we will see in a major move to Web-only publishing for specialist content. (Newspapers, however, will remain print focused, because they need to have a very broad reach.) Paradoxically, this will mean the end of much of the free Web content, as publishers drive revenue through their Web publications.

Like everything else in this world, content will have to pay for itself, either through advertising, driving sales of related products, or subscription strategies. Because quality content is so expensive to create, viable business models will very often require a combination of the three.

Get ready to pay for content!

Gerry McGovern

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Content management seminar feedback
"Gerry's presentation was very well received by the more than 400 higher education delegates. I've chaired this meeting since 1994 and very few speakers have generated the same level of enthusiasm. Wit and wisdom is always an unbeatable combination."
Bob Johnson, American Marketing Association

“Excellent presenter ... thought-provoking and relevant. I hope we can persuade him to visit us again one day.”
Malcolm Davison
The British Association of Communicators in Business

"Hearing Gerry McGovern speaking, one can feel that he truly masters the subject of content management. He was voted ‘best speaker of the conference’ by delegates."
Toon Lowette
European Association of Directory Publishers

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People simply don’t realize how expensive it is to publish a quality article.