iPad

The day after the Digital Printing Forum

It was my first time at the Digital Printing Froum in Milano 2. It has been a very interesting event proposing a wide range of opportunities for communication companies, digital printers, DM operators, service providers to directly meet many technology providers. This year the event celebrates the 16th edition with a First Class organization level. I have been invited to the round table dedicated to innovation within the editorial market, new media and future strategies. In summary, among the many social, economical, technological factors influencing and driving the market, I emphasized that in Italy I have seen a large number of companies without a clear content management strategy. This is mainly due to the fact that they think content management is a technical issue which must be solved within ICT department rather than a real strategic leverage supporting the business growth. In my opinion the crucial point is that today "content is King" more than ever. If a company has set up the appropriate content management strategy, supported by the right technological infrastructure, will have no problem using the content which today is printed on paper (product catalogue, magazine, newspaper) and tomorrow will be distributed on web sites, social media, e-Book readers, tablets, smart phones. It does not matter the kind of company: printer, graphic industry, book publisher, new media, newspaper and magazine publisher or even industry and services because content, at the most granular level, is just about text, image, sound and video file formats. If companies have all structured new processes to manage, to share and to distribute any content from one unique system or platform like censhare, they will have "less" problems when printed orders will start to decrease. They will surely be able to compensate the loss of the printed volume providing new services to their customers. This is how in my opinion, graphic industries will become in the future "content distributors" and newspapers or magazine editors will become more like "marketing companies". I suggest the reading of this article published on 2009 on the Harward Business Review. Media Companies Need To Become Marketing Companies. I am very grateful to the organizers for the opportunity to be present and to live such a rich experience.