Containers.. hmm...Beyond the Story: Engaging Experiences Rule | excerpt from Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Brian O’Leary’s Context first essay is a must-read for everyone in the publishing business, traditional and new media:

We need to think about containers as an option, not the starting point.  Further, we must start to open up access, making it possible for readers to discover and consume our content within and across digital realms. Without a shift in mindset, we are vulnerable to a range of current and future disruptive entrants.  Containers limit how we think about our audiences.  In stripping context, they also limit how audiences find our content.

Emphasis is mine there, but it’s ultimately O’Leary’s core point and bears repeating: Containers limit how we think about our audiences.

Containers also limit how our audiences discover, consume, engage and share our content, too.

Plain and simple, publishers who see themselves as primarily being in the book business, print or digital, are limiting their viability, profitability and longevity.

Last Fall, I noted that my ideal publisher of the 21st Century would fully embrace transmedia development principles:

…every story would go through an organic transmedia development process BEFORE acquisition to identify other appropriate media, either for production or format licensing, including film/tv, video/computer games, interactive apps, T/CCGs, online education, merchandising, etc. Some acquisitions would be made without the expectation of a physical book being a factor.

In the 21st Century, the container is a secondary concern, dictated by the kind of content being curated, and most importantly, by the needs of the community for which it’s meant to serve. Anything less is a missed opportunity, and a disservice to all involved.

via loudpoet.com

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales