Publishing in the Digital Age

Over the past 15 years, digital technologies have revolutionised the publishing world, not least because readers and authors can now take control of how they engage with the process. This concise overview course examines the current state of play in publishing, including the increasing importance of reader behaviour to the creation of new content and publications.

Publishing in the Digital Age is an intensive three-day course that has been created for managers and planners with responsibility for new product development and delivery. It is led by a team of tutors, each specialising in different aspects of publishing in the digital age. It covers all phases of product creation, from initial conception and planning, through to launch.

Note: This course was previously called The Digital Publisher.

 

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course, you should be able to:

  • define new business models
  • identify software options
  • apply project management processes
  • understand production issues
  • list the steps involved in the development of digital products
  • ensure that teams contain the right mix of skills to gain a competitive advantage.

This course contributes to PUB 6, PUB 7 and PUB 11 of the Book & Journal Publishing National Occupational Standards.

 

Who will benefit from this course?

Publishers, managers and all key individuals who need to understand the digital landscape in order to drive business growth.

 

Programme

Day 1

  • The digital landscape: today and tomorrow
    • The current market
    • Defining your commercial goals
    • The three golden rules of digital strategy
    • Checklists and specifications
  • Business planning and finance investment appraisals
    • Financial context of companies
    • How the financial profile changes as companies go digital
    • How products are costed, including the differences between print and digital
  • Digital business models
    • What business are we in and how do we deliver value to customers?
    • Sources and types of revenue
    • Competing with free – indirect revenue and other benefits
    • Strengths and weaknesses of a range of business models – which would work best for us?

Day 2

  • Commissioning and editing for the digital environment
    • The differences between using digital and printed products
    • What is digital content?
    • Digital content: exercise
    • Planning your content
    • Commissioning and briefing
    • Briefing: exercise
    • Editing content
    • Production: integrating content
    • Testing
    • Search engine optimisation and findability
    • Managing the product: reviewing and updating content, adding new content, user-generated content
  • Publishing technologies
    • What are the important digital publishing technologies?
    • Understanding the technology of e-books
    • Learning how to speak knowledgeably about XML to stakeholders, suppliers and technical people
    • Tailoring your content for multi-platform output

Day 3

  • Digital project management
    • Specifying requirements
    • Project roles and responsibilities (including outsourcing)
    • Planning and scheduling
    • Managing quality
    • Managing risk
    • Dealing with change
    • Progressing projects – approval cycles, performance monitoring
    • Case study 1: actual example of digital project management
    • Case study 2: e-books
    • Practical group work looking at real-life project management documentation
  • Marketing in a digital environment
    • Digital marketing: an introduction
    • Free publicity and market research
    • When to create content (and when not to)
    • Measuring your success
    • Getting your authors digitally savvy
  • Questions and feedback.

 

Your Tutors

This course will be led by a range of specialist tutors, including:

  • Katie Roden is a publishing consultant specialising in product development and brand strategy
  • Kay Symons is a publishing consultant with more than 30 years’ experience with some of the foremost educational publishers.
  • Emily Gibson is a director of Corbas Consulting Ltd
  • Sue Davis is a web editor, designer, content strategist and consultant with more than 16 years’ experience
  • Sarah Sodhi has been producing, editing and reviewing digital resources over the past 12 years
  • Mark Stringer is a software developer and project manager. He also runs training and consulting firm, AgileLab.
Continue Reading

Note that most of our short courses can also be run as In-Company events.

  • Dates: 09 September 2015
  • Duration: A three-day course
  • Price: £895+VAT
  • A number of discounts are available

Provisional Booking Form

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If you are entitled to one of our range of discounts, please select one of the following. To check your eligibility, visit our Discounts and funding page.




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Anything else you’d like to tell us? If you’ve been issued with a voucher from the Publishing Training Centre and you’d like to use it with this booking, or you’d like to book more than four people on this course, let us know here. Alternatively, you can email us directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. :

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