Projections show that the global digital publishing market will reach a size of $69.81 billion by 2028.
Many aspects of our lives are changing with digitization, and publishing is no exception. Fewer people are buying physical publications every year, with more readers opting for digital alternatives. It seems quite clear that this will continue in the coming years.
So what is digital publishing, and why is it the future? Keep reading to find out.
What Is Digital Publishing?
Digital publishing (also known as online or electronic publishing) is a way of publishing various pieces of content online. This typically includes things like eBooks, magazines, newspapers, and journals.
A publisher can produce digital documents which people can then read online or download. Depending on the purpose of the document, manipulation is sometimes also possible.
Readers can use various devices, such as computers, tablets, smartphones, and e-readers to view digital publications. The concept is focused on written documents, but it also covers other types of content such as videos, animations, podcasts, and infographics.
Why Digital Publishing Is the Future
Every year, more organizations are choosing digital publishing over traditional publishing. This is because it offers a range of advantages.
1. Cost Reduction
Perhaps the biggest benefit of digital publishing is that it’s more cost-effective. This is ideal for any publisher, as it can help them generate more profits.
Traditional publishing has a range of expenses for things such as paper, shipping, and printing. None of these is an issue when using digital technology. There are still some overhead costs, but they’re significantly less.
Web hosting, for example, may be necessary. Compared to national (or international) shipping, however, it’s a much more cost-effective method. The money you save can then be reinvested back into your business to be used on other resources.
2. Environmental Impact
These days, the environmental impact of organizations is incredibly important, especially to younger generations. People don’t always think of publishers as the biggest polluters, but the change from paper to digital can make a sizable difference.
Digital publishing can save a huge amount of paper and other raw materials. It’s also much more energy efficient as it doesn’t require any machinery or equipment other than computers.
The digital publishing process produces far less waste than traditional publishing. This can massively reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. While paper can be recycled, this still requires energy that doesn’t need to be used and isn’t done everywhere.
3. Reaching a Wider Audience
One of the best ways for any business to grow is to reach a wider audience, and digital publishing is one of the most effective ways to do this. If you publish a magazine, for example, the further you want to ship it and the more copies you print, the more it will cost. There may also be various markets that you don’t interact with as it’s not worth the cost to reach them.
With a digital magazine, you can easily reach users all over the world. Working at this larger scale won’t cost any more, so you can easily bring in readers from markets that you usually wouldn’t bother to interact with.
Online documents are also much easier for people to share. As such, your readers will be more likely to tell their friends and family about your work, helping you bring in even more readers for free.
4. Learn More About Your Readers
Through digital publishing, you can learn a huge amount about your readers. Using analytics, you can track a range of metrics in terms of how your content is being consumed.
You can see what markets you’re doing best in, and what demographics are most interested in your content. From this, you can make changes to your strategy to try to improve things. You’ll also be able to see what types of articles perform the best, allowing you to allocate resources more effectively.
You can also track your marketing and advertising. This will allow you to optimize your marketing strategy, making it more cost-effective.
All of this will allow you to improve your content and better cater to your audience. This will lead to increased profits and faster growth for your company.
5. Easier Advertising Revenue
People often don’t realize how much of a difference there can be in advertising costs. For print publications, there can be a fair amount of work involved. You’ll need dedicated employees to get it done right, as ads within a print publication can be especially difficult.
Things are generally much easier when it comes to digital publications. All of the data and insights you collect can help you develop a suitable strategy and sales pitch. You can also ensure advertisements are put in locations where people within a specified target market are more likely to see them.
Services like Google AdSense can then make things even easier. Through automation, such platforms will optimize your resources to ensure any ads are as effective as possible.
Is Digital Publishing Right for You?
There may be specific reasons that some organizations prefer paper publishing, but with all the advantages that digital publishing brings, it’s clearly the better choice in most situations. It’s cost-effective, better for the environment, and can help your company grow by reaching a wider audience.
Magloft is an all-in-one digital publishing platform. We can help convert all of your PDF documents into content that’s perfect for all devices, such as smartphones, computers, and tablets. To give our platform a try, click here and start your free 14-day trial today.
