Digital video, digital audio, digital text, digital conferencing, digital book fairs, digital, period. In the 2020s these are not add-ons or third-party verticals. These are key components of modern publishing.
One of the fastest growing sectors in global publishing is video, which along with audio is shifting from an add-on format to mainstream for publishers looking to exploit the potential of digital.
As the lines between publishing sectors and publishing verticals digitally blur, so publishing expands its audience reach and revenue potential by embracing “new” opportunities.
Education has led the way, and the Pandemic has accelerated the process, with more and more publishers producing video in-house or partnering with video producers as part of a broad programme, but of course video’s value to publishing extends far beyond the education sector.
This week the world’s biggest digital library conduit, US-based OverDrive, announced it has completed its acquisition of Kanopy, a video streaming service for public and academic libraries.
The acquisition adds Kanopy’s 30,000 “highly curated” films to the OverDrive catalogue that reaches 73,000 libraries worldwide.
In 2020 OverDrive saw over 430 million digital downloads of its content globally.
In a statement, OverDrive CEO Steve Potash outlined the bigger-picture value of the acquisition:
We look forward to extending the value of the Kanopy content and service through their complementary content and technologies.
Complementary content… Complementary technologies…
In 2021 publishing is not, except for niche operations catering to a niche market, about finely bound volumes of exquisitely composed text on parchment. It’s a trans-media experience , still evolving, as the Global New Renaissance unfolds.
Complementary content, complementary formats, complementary IPs and complementary technologies. However we choose to paraphrase the terminology, publishers need to embrace the concepts and move with the times, or else commit to being niche-market operators in an increasingly global publishing market.
Digital video, digital audio, digital text, digital conferencing, digital book fairs, digital, period. In the 2020s these are not add-ons or third-party verticals. These are key components of modern publishing.
