What Are The Challenges of Digital Content Transformation and How To Overcome Them?

In the digital era where people are consuming their content on their smartphones, it makes business sense for publishers to embrace digital content transformation. Many publishers are today facing the consequence of not evolving with the fast-changing technology and digitalization. As a result, they are faced with the danger of obsolesce.  

Interestingly, the publishing industry is facing a paradox of sorts – while the people are consuming more content than ever before, sales of traditional publishing houses are going down drastically. It is easy to explain this paradox: more and more people are now consuming their content on their smart devices than in the physical form. Publishers, therefore, have to meet the needs of the modern reader. In other words, they have to offer digitalized content, and for this, they would need to transform their traditional business models and adopt the technology.

It is said that the only constant is change; however, a universal fact is that people fall into their comfort zone and are generally resistant to change.  The fast-changing world of technology has forced people and businesses out of their comfort zone forcing them to embrace transformation. However, this is easier said than done. Publishers are faced with several challenges. Here, in this article, we look at some of the challenges faced by publishers in their digital content transformation journey.

To embrace new technology for digital content transformation, you have to be familiar with the technology that would best serve this purpose. Then again, even if you do research and identify the technology to use, you need technical expertise to implement it. This is one of the greatest barriers to digital content transformation. One way to address this is to partner with digital publishing companies or third-party service providers who can help in the digital content transformation. A case point is KITABOO, a digital publishing platform that allows publishers to transform their print books, documents, and manuscripts into electronic or digital copies. These digital versions can then be accessed on all types of reading devices including tablets and smartphones. 

Another major challenge for publishers in their digitalizing journey is the cost associated with the project. There is therefore a need to do a cost analysis. Also, if you wish to undertake the project in-house, you need to invest in a technical team and infrastructure. Added to this is the fact that technology is constantly evolving which means that you also have to constantly invest in the skills up-gradation of your employees so that you can evolve your digital assets to the latest technology. This can prove to be a Herculean task, eating away into your budget and time. The way out for publishers is to outsource the digital content transformation to a third-party service provider who can help you digitalize your assets. To explain this with an example, the technical team at Hurix Digital will help you digitalize your assets using the company’s award-winning digital publishing software Kitaboo. The features and capabilities of the software are updated in tune with the evolving technologies and so it becomes simple to constantly evolve your digital assets without investing in your own technology and team. With Hurix Digital as your partner in your digital publishing journey, you can focus on the core aspects of your business.

Related read: How to Select the Best Digital Publishing Platform for eBook Publisher

One of the biggest challenges facing the publishing industry is competing with the free content that is easily available on the Internet. Therefore, becomes a task to engage with declining readership while also navigating different platforms for content distribution. To survive the cut-throat competition, publishers need to move away from traditional structures and adopt new business models. They need to repackage their content in a way to stand out and attract attention. One way to achieve this is to create highly interactive and engaging content using the new immersive technology. Again to explain this with an example, let us say you wish to digitally transform fairy tales for children. With KITABOO, you can leverage immersive technologies such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, simulations, and audio/video to bring alive and immerse the audience into the fairy-tale world. In case you are publishing textbooks, you can hyperlink the content to external and internal sources, use 3D to bring alive abstract concepts, or provide a simulated environment for learners to practice difficult and sometimes dangerous concepts in safety in a virtual environment that resembles real-life. High-quality content coupled with innovative use of immersive technology is the perfect combination to bring about a digital content transformation, capture the attention of the modern readers and stand out in a sea of free content.

Technology apart, one of the greatest challenges facing any digital content transformation is bringing about a cultural change in the organization. As said above, people are generally resistant to change. Added to is the insecurity of becoming irrelevant due to the implementation of technology. Another challenge can be that your workforce lacks technical skills. It, therefore, becomes imperative to first set the ground for digital content transformation. This would mean taking all the stakeholders into confidence and bringing behavioral change and intention to adopt new methods and technology. This could be achieved through training. 

Related read: Top 8 Successful Strategies for Digital Publishing in Revenue Growth

Any successful digital content transformation incorporates systematic and process changes that are needed in response to a change in the technological landscape. The first step in any successful digital content transformation journey is to first have a strategy or a plan of action that describes and provides a blueprint on how you will reposition yourself in the digital landscape. As the reading habits of the audience change, publishers have to innovate and change their operating models by leveraging new technology. Added to that is the need to bring about an organizational change so that the people are more receptive to and ready to adopt change. However, implementing new technology is easier said than done. It requires investment in technology and infrastructure, which may not be feasible for some publishers. A way out is to partner with third-party service providers like Hurix Digital who can leverage their award-winning digital publishing platform, KITABOO, to successfully undertake the digital content transformation. To know more, please write to us at kitaboo@hurix.com.