How to build a digital publishing business in 2023

Written by : Rashmi Singh

The average screen time of people is increasing by the day. It is a matter of concern for offline businesses. But if you are planning to start digital publishing in 2023, it is a piece of good news for you. 

The latest publishing tech has made it uber-easy to create and publish any type of media. That being said, it is important to know the ins and outs of the digital publishing business to make sure you do not make any mistake that costs you resources. 

Down below is a quick guide on how to build a digital publishing business in 2023:

Digital publishing, at its core, is serving different forms of media to users on their devices such as smartphones, PCs, smartwatches, and so on. Most people imagine digital magazines and eNewspapers when they think of digital publishing but it encompasses much more such as personal blogs, company blogs, apps, etc.

Serving media is one part of the digital publishing business. The other major part is monetising the attention of your users. Thanks to the ever-evolving technology, there are many methods of monetization available to digital publishers now that were not available to them just a few years back.

1. Choose the media type and target audience

Text-based websites are still the biggest part of the digital publishing world but publishers now have a lot more options when it comes to media types. Picture-based stories, videos, audio, immersive content – you can choose one or more types of media. 

Choosing your target audience is as important as choosing the media type. If you do not choose your target audience at the start, you will have problems taking editorial decisions, running marketing campaigns, and increasing engagement. 

2. Choose a business model

Just like media types, there are many business models available to digital publishers today. Some business models are traditional like the advertisement model, while others are relatively new like the micropayments model. 

It is important to know here that digital publishers rarely nail the business model on the first try. They usually experiment many times to know what type of business model suits the best to their audience and the content. It is not uncommon for digital publishers to use more than one business model to gain maximum profits. 

3. Choose the right tools

Once you choose the media type, target audience, and right business model, you will need some digital tools to execute your plans. To make the publication process seamless, you can get all the required digital publishing solutions from a single solutions provider. 

The most important piece of software you will need for publishing is a content management system or CMS. A CMS enables you to create and publish content across different platforms. Apart from that, you will need digital tools for content distribution and monetization.

4. Be open to experimenting

There are some tried and tested methods that work in the digital publishing world but it is still a nascent industry compared to the offline publishing industry. So, be prepared to experiment with the editorial direction of your media, business model, and the digital infrastructure you use to run your digital publishing business.

Riding the trends can give you marketing leverage over your competitors. Here is a list of some trends to watch out for in 2023:

• Data-driven publishing is going to take over intuition-driven publishing. 

• New forms of interactive media will emerge through AR/VR.

• People will not go to individual apps or websites to consume media. They will want it to get delivered to them wherever they already are, for example, on social media.

If you are planning to launch a successful digital publishing business in 2023, Quintype can help you. We provide a complete suite of digital publishing solutions that will help you at every step of digital publishing – from creating content to monetizing it. Click here to learn more about our digital publishing solutions.