The Technology Waiting Game

One of the major technological imperatives publishers are facing today—as if there weren’t plenty to deal with already—is the content production workflow. In the July/August issue of Folio:, we interviewed Condé Nast’s CTO Joe Simon, who noted that the CMS is becoming the primary digital asset management tool. Imagine that for a second, a platform that once simply enabled publishers to produce their web content is now becoming central to the entire, multiplatform content publishing process.

Yet, that’s an enormous bite for many publishers to take. And in this issue we present our annual Manufacturing and Production Technology survey, which we’ve tweaked a bit to reveal some attitudes on how mobile and tablet technology is impacting the production process.

In looking at the statistics, you have to keep in mind that print production technology has obviously had plenty of time to mature. Production executives are typically satisfied with how this works. And even though we’re on the verge of the mobile content era, print is still the dominant revenue source and therefore still commands the hearts and minds of most top executives. Plus, capital is tight, and, as the survey reveals, investment in new technology is relatively flat.

Early adopters are in the minority, so most publishers are taking a wait and see approach with the integration of new digital and mobile production technologies. And of those that have made the move, satisfaction levels—a new question this year—are still on the low end, which is to be expected as we lurch our way through the print-digital-mobile production technology integration process.

Bill Mickey
Editor
bmickey@red7media.com

September 2012

Volume 41 Issue 7

Editorial & Advertising

Red 7 Media Group

Access Intelligence, LLC

The Technology Waiting Game