The Internet Has Made Publishing Easier. It Hasn’t Made Being Read Easier.
Publishing has become astonishingly easy. Getting someone to care has not.
A person can now launch a website, distribute a newsletter, record a podcast and publish a book without asking a traditional media organisation for permission. The technical barriers have fallen dramatically.
But the reduction in publishing barriers has produced another problem: abundance.
Readers face an endless stream of articles, videos, opinions, newsletters and podcasts. A new publication is not competing only with other publications in its subject. It is competing with everything else demanding a person’s limited attention.
That changes the job of a publisher.
In the old model, access to printing presses, broadcast licences, distribution networks and large advertising budgets created formidable barriers. Today, the barrier is increasingly the reader’s decision to return.
A clever headline might win a click. It cannot, by itself, create a habit.
Think about the publications you return to. Usually, you know what kind of value to expect. Perhaps the reporting is rigorous, the analysis is unusually clear, the humour is distinctive or the writer understands a subject you care about. Over time, the publication earns a place in your routine.
This is why identity matters. A publication needs more than a subject category. It needs a recognisable promise.
And here’s the surprising part: publishing more can make the problem worse. If a small team produces daily articles, videos, podcasts and social posts without a clear editorial purpose, it may become busier while becoming less memorable.
A stronger approach is to define the audience, identify the questions that matter to them and create a consistent body of work. Then choose formats that help that work travel. An interview might become a podcast episode and a written profile. A detailed explainer might become a reference guide. A newsletter can bring readers back to the publication rather than relying on a platform to remind them it exists.
The objective isn’t to be everywhere. It’s to be useful enough, and distinctive enough, that people make room for you.
That principle connects with the ecosystem thinking in *The Media Ecosystem Blueprint* by Kizzi Nkwocha: a media operation should be designed around relationships between its assets, not simply the number of channels it occupies.
If anyone can publish now, what should persuade a reader to choose your publication — and keep choosing it?
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Media-Ecosystem-Blueprint-Global-Empire/dp/B0FWRM9TWK
#Publishing, #DigitalMedia, #Journalism, #AudienceEngagement, #ContentMarketing, #EditorialStrategy, #Newsletters, #Podcasting, #MediaInnovation, #MediaEcosystem
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