On Format Agnosticism: Print is Alive as a Medium, Dying as an Industry
May 12, 2008 – 9:46 amAll the News That’s Fit to Print – slogan, The New York Times
In January, I and a Wikia colleague had the pleasure of meeting with Mike Shatzkin, founder and CEO of The Idea Logical Company, a publishing consulting firm. It was the second time I’d met Mike, although the first time in almost eight years. Almost a decade before, I interviewed for a position at his other company, Baseball Library, and but for attending law school, would probably have ended up working there.
During our conversation, Mike shared with me a theory he had recently discussed in his column on Publisher’s Weekly, which you can read in its entirety here. The key point I want to discuss in this post is right at the top:
There is an overarching theme to the changes already taking place. Consumer media in the 20th century tended to be horizontal and format-specific. The New York Times and Random House define “horizontal”: they publish across all interests and markets. The Internet will drive 21st-century publishing enterprises to be more like what professional publishing has always been: highly vertical and format-agnostic.
To be clear, here’s what Mike is saying. There are basically two types of publishers: “format-specific horizontals” and “format-agnostic verticals.” (Those are his terms, not mine.) The New York Times is the perfect example of a format-specific horizontal, in that (a) they only publish newspapers (basically) — that is, the Times is wed to a particular format; but (b) the Grey Lady will publish a story on just about anything. Crack open a weeks worth of editions and you will see sections on news (both international and local, and occasionally about New Jersey or Connecticut), business, technology, the job market, style, house and home, obituaries, weddings and celebrations, sports, weather, science, health, the arts, travel, real estate, cars, etc. One will even find comics and a crossword puzzle or seven. All the News — that’s the horizontal part — that’s fit to print. That’s the format-specificity aspect. There’s no New York Times branded radio, books, or television, and to a large degree, their website and magazines are barely extensions of the newspaper itself (with apologies to William Safire, Randy Cohen, and the litany of Times bloggers out there).
Mike is predicting that these format-specific horizontals — including the newspaper industry — are going the way of the dodo. That’s a pretty heady observation, and there is a ton of evidence that not only is Mike right, but that the newspaper industry is doomed — yet at the same time, print media is not going to disappear by any meaningful measure.
Why?
Because the format-agnostic vertical publishers will start to enter the print market.
Before I get there, let’s define what a “format-agnostic vertical publisher” is. It is a publisher who specializes in one expertise and publishes content on that topic, in any way, shape, or form. My favorite example is ESPN, the self-proclaimed “Worldwide Leader in Sports.” Note that, right off the bat, ESPN postures itself much differently than does the Times, as ESPN does not limit itself to a format but does limit itself to a topic.
In practice, ESPN’s slogan is as true as the Times‘. ESPN has at least four TV stations (I think six now?). They have ESPN radio, ESPN.com, ESPN 360 (web-based video), podcasts, blogs, ESPN the Magazine, ESPN Books (really), and ESPN Fantasy Games. They company has even dipped their toes into running sporting events with the X-Games. But you could go a month without seeing anything non-sports related, poker and spelling bees aside, on things under the ESPN brand. Case in point: Barack Obama appears on ESPN.com about 800 times, or about half as often as J.J. Henry, a golfer you have probably never heard of.
The salient takeaway is that, even though the print industry is dying, ESPN clearly sees value in having not one but two print-specific products available. And one need not go too far to see similar instances of vertical-specific brands breaking into print — check out this list of books authored by “Food Network” or the Travel Channel Magazine.
Why does this work? Because while the Times postured itself to be expert in newspapers, ESPN postured itself to be expert in sports. And as the amount of media increases and the ease of obtaining that information decreases, consumers are not going to opt for the catch-all solution that the newspaper provides. We are going, instead, to go to the deep, expert information bank. Why? Because even as recently as 25 years ago, that deep information was either hard to find or expensive — and the newspaper provided a good enough solution at a low cost. But now, the deep information is available and inexpensive, and effective branding and marketing can focus the consumer’s attention on those with expertise in the vertical — for example, ESPN’s proffered expertise when it comes to sports.
It will be interesting to see if other publishers figure this out as well.
