The haze on the digital frontier

Digital publishing is like nation building, something that is always talked about in vague, general, feel-good terms. The proliferation of web pages, e-letters and e-bulletins by both consumer and trade publishers seems predicated on the belief that these things will pay for themselves imminently or eventually and, for now, are a cost of doing business in the modern wired world. Be there or be square, that sort of thing. [This doesn't include companies, like Thomson or Reed Elsevier, which have specialized in data-based publishing for a specialized, professional audience.]

Isn't it curious that there doesn't seem to be much -- if any -- evidence that anybody in consumer or trade is making money on anything but the old-fashioned business of putting advertising in printed magazines.

Part of this is due to the lamentable reporting capabilities this industry has in Canada. Because the industry is relatively small and closely held, nobody wants to reveal their secrets, especially financial ones. While, internally, publishing groups may track their digital operations quite closely, the results are aggregated with all other publishing whenever results are talked about.

Reading the public record, the annual reports of public companies (Transcontinental, Rogers, Quebecor, Hollinger) and try as you might it is almost impossible to winkle out what costs and revenues were and what profit on websites and digital publishing. Let's hope that the directors of these companies aren't simply relying on faith. While it is contended that the Chatelaine.com (todaysparent.com, flare.com etc.) stable of websites and mini-sites is hugely successful, sez who? Trade publishers like the Business Information Group promote their electronic publishing as valuable line extensions of books like Hazardous Materials Management. And, maybe, the readers do value these and pay market rates for them. But try to find any scoresheets.

Is digital and web publishing simply an exercise in feel-good added value, without much offsetting incremental revenue? Or are we in a transition period, with the balance soon to tip in favour of digital publishing? If this is the future of today's consumer and (perhaps especially) trade print publishers (and many say passionately that it is), wouldn't you think someone would be a market leader, say so and back it up with some proof?