Author: Dan Blank

Creating the Future of Publishing: Insiders vs Outsiders

Will the future of publishing come from an established publishing company? Or, will it come from innovators outside of the publishing word? Apple has already proven that the future of the music industry will be innovated by outsiders, and that they will find revenue in the process that the music industry itself could not find. As book, magazine and newspaper publishers try to maintain a steady course, they are confronted by new competitors, powerful innovators, and changing expectations & behaviors from their customers.

Before we dive in, a story:

In the early 1980’s, John Lasseter had landed his dream job at Disney Studios. He was a respected up and coming talent, whose passion was digital animation. He was asked to work on an experimental project: to develop a short movie of The Brave Little Toaster, that blended traditional and digital animation. This would push the boundaries of what was possible at the time.

Eight months later, John presented his team’s work to management. After his film ended, he was asked “How much is this going to cost?” John answered “It will be no more money than to do a regular animated film.” The executive wasn’t happy, telling him: “The only reason to do computer animation is if we can do it faster or cheaper.”

John left the meeting, and five minutes later he received a phone call. He was told that his employment with Disney Studios was now terminated.

Disney clearly didn’t care about the long-term value of this medium, they didn’t care about the quality and rarity of John’s animation and storytelling abilities. They cared about a short-term scalable revenue generating or cost-savings process. This is during the dark ages of Disney animation, when the richness of story and imagery was “budgeted out” of many features.

John went on to be a founding member of Pixar, which Disney bought for $7.4 billion 25 years later. John is now Chief Creative Officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios and the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering. He reports directly to the Disney CEO, and has the power to green-light films, with Roy E. Disney’s consent.

It’s incredible to consider that Disney had Lasseter happily working for them, but they didn’t know what to do with his talent. It didn’t fit into their narrowly defined goals. And now, a quarter century later, he and his fellow Pixar founders are running much of Disney.

Which brings us back to publishing…

Are publishers working so hard to “keep the lights on” to support their existing structures, products and processes, that they have no room for the future? That they need to keep up their headcount and resources for existing channels, roles, campaigns, products and processes, that they feel there is more value in focusing on what worked in the past, instead of what will work in the future?

To their credit, every single publishing company has people working on new products – on some exciting new things. A lot of it is really interesting stuff being run by really smart and passionate people. But do these people have the resources they need? Are they being judged by the proper measures and timeframes? Do they have the ability to innovate in ways that challenge core principals and processes that the existing publishing structure adheres to?

In other words, are they allowed to color outside of the lines?

This is where the door is left open for outsiders to innovate in some key areas that will clearly be a big part of the future of publishing:

  • Apps
    One area I am spending a lot of time researching is apps for the iPad, iPhone, and other devices. So far, this field is still wide open. There are loads of upstarts getting in the game.

  • Self-Publishing
    With digital books becoming more and more accepted, the concept of “self publishing” is starting to sound appealing to some writers and creators. The stigma is not what it once was. This does not mean that the value of being published by a big house is less valued. That remains INCREDIBLY valuable. But it simple means that many writers may begin to feel that they have a choice. How will this evolve over the next 20 years?

  • Transmedia
    The very nature of how traditional publishers work with writers is being rethought – the idea of “transmedia” is being talked about a lot. That companies need to partner with creators not just for a book, but the entire intellectual property rights around the ideas in book. The easy example is JK Rowling and the Harry Potter universe, a juggernaut of merchandising, movies, and even a theme park.

  • Social Media
    And of course, then there are the ways that online communities and social media is changing many sides of publishing. These may be subtle shifts, but they are powerful and unpredictable.

Publishers are clearly experimenting in all of these areas. And that is REALLY great to see. But I do wonder if these experiments are like the one described by Disney/Pixar above – a small, controlled experiment, being judged primarily by it’s affect on revenue/resources in the short-term, instead of potential long-term value.

Now, there is the flip side of this argument – that Disney didn’t need to develop these competencies around digital animation – which is time consuming, and expensive. They can simply buy a company like Pixar once the model is proven. And this is true.

But the cost is not just the $7.4 billion price tag of Pixar. It is the OPPORTUNITY VALUE that Disney missed for 25 years. What if John Lassetter had not been let go of Disney, what if he was a talent developed in-house. What if he was able to pull in fellow Pixar founder Ed Catmull to Disney. What could Disney have done in those 25 years? Not just what failures could have been avoided, but what could have been created? How could this have shaped everything that Disney touches – from theme parks to merchandising.

Disney CEO Bob Iger explained why he bought Pixar: he went to the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland and watched the parade down main street. He noticed that most of the characters that the kids reacted to were all from previous decades. Disney still made movies, some worked, some didn’t. But they weren’t creating long-term value, they were missing the opportunity value that went beyond quarterly profits.

So he bought Pixar, a company that created beloved characters that kids adore. And these are characters that will be adored for decades.

How is the publishing world doing the same – not just worrying about eBook pricing and quarterly revenue numbers, but truly creating value that will expand the industry for the next century?

-Dan

(The stories about Pixar in this article were sourced from a GREAT documentary about the company: The Pixar Story.)

How to Engage an Online Community: The Kat Meyer Interview

This week, I chatted with Kat Meyer, Community Manager/Co-Chair for Tools of Change at O’Reilly Media. You can find Kat on Twitter at @KatMeyer, on the O’Reilly Radar blog, and her LinkedIn profile.

My goal is to share conversations with those doing interesting things in the world of publishing, media, and the web.

Click ‘play’ below to hear Kat’s thoughts on what it means to serve your audience online, including great quotes like:

  • “Readers can inform a product, not just buy it.”
  • “The world is a community.”
  • “Social media is people.”

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What Happens When Businesses “Unlock Value” From a Community

There is this big gaping hole in the New York City skyline. Between the grand buildings of midtown and the financial district, is this flat spot. Don’t worry, this spot is growing, or should we say, it has a growth.

This flat spot is a great example of how communities form organically, and how once the community is firmly established, businesses rush in to “unlock value.”

It is also a counterpoint to how many media brands and corporations are diving into the online world to create “communities” online, via aggregation, social media and content marketing.

The flattest spot in the middle of New York is SoHo, the area south of Houston Street and above Canal Street. The reason it is so flat is because during the explosive growth of skyscrapers from the 1930s-1960s, buying property in SoHo was tantamount to throwing your money away. There are two reasons for is:

  1. It was a mixed use industrial area between more well established communities.
  2. From 1928 to the mid 1960s, Robert Moses and other city planners attempted to level a huge portion of SoHo to build a highway cutting across Manhattan.

No reasonable building owner or business would invest their money or move their operations to an area that may soon be taken over by the city, flattened, and turned into a series of on-ramps. This is what it would have looked like:

SoHo NYC

So, for those 30+ years, during one of the biggest construction booms in American history, SoHo entered a time warp. The 1800s cast iron buildings remained untouched as the rest of the city tore down smaller, older buildings to build towering skyscrapers.

As businesses closed up shop in SoHo, and real estate became nearly worthless, artists moved in. Renting or squatting in loft spaces, they turned industrial buildings into makeshift residential spaces. Today it might seem elegant to live in an open loft-like space but these artists pioneered that idea, embracing the lack of walls and light-filled space in.

And for years, this is how it was in SoHo. There was no reason for traditional businesses to invest in the area. The City Club of New York called it a “slum” in their 1962 report titled “The Wastelands of New York City.”

Artists established a community where none existed, they fought their way into spaces they didn’t own, that wasn’t even zoned for habitation, and they built something unique. They turned nothing into something.

In the late 1960s the battle for SoHo ended. Preservationists killed the city’s plan, and the highway idea was scrapped. What happened next was interesting. SoHo was a big area of the city that was free of grand design. It had evolved out of necessity for those decades, by the people lowest on the rungs of power – the artists.

But with the threat lifted, money could now enter the scene. When it was safe, when a community and culture and purpose was established, businesses were now ready to join in. At first, it was the more firmly established arts community, with galleries and those who could afford the art within them. Then the retail community, and most recently, Donald Trump erected SoHo’s first skyscraper. Can you find it in this photo?

SoHo

That building opened very recently, and is the perfect visual image of what it means to co-opt a community. For SoHo, it is the latest chapter in a long-running trend of money and power moving into the area, which has been out of reach for a starving artist for a long time.

With SoHo, I see parallels as to what is happening to communities on the web. Individuals and small groups slowly establish credibility, establish networks, and build up online communities over time. They evolve with purpose, with risk, with commitment. And then, when it’s safe, established businesses and power players finally “see the opportunity to unlock value,” pour in money, and take over what they can.

And sure, this involvement can be both validating and empowering. You see this in lots of small areas – the “mommy bloggers,” now sponsored by Tide and signing multiple book deals. More and more, you see a major consumer brands establish their own blog, recruiting established parenting bloggers to write for them in order to lend credibility.

This is one way that “content marketing” is evolving, and where businesses are targeting niche communities. This is happening in the both the consumer and B2B spaces, and within many different types of media brands.

And some of these efforts are great – something that benefits the many more than the few, and empowers both larger businesses and smaller individuals. Something that truly helps the communities they serve.

But I like to keep SoHo in mind. At what point does the money coming into the area no longer represent validation and much needed resources – at what point does it push out the community that established value there slowly over the course of decades. At what point does it not reward those bold early efforts that were full of uncertainty; at what point do the efforts of larger companies need to align with double-digit revenue growth, not community service.

And as content marketing continues to evolve online, I also want to keep in mind that communities are not established merely to market a company’s products. Yes, communities need resources, they need validation, and they need leadership. But to truly support a community, you tend to it, you serve it, you empower it. You don’t co-opt it for profit.

-Dan

Publishing Success: Niche Communities vs a Broad Audience

Would you tear down a 14 bedroom mansion to build a 4 bedroom house? That’s what Steve Jobs is doing, and this serves as a great example of focus: why some businesses grow not because of what they choose to do, but what they choose NOT to do. That something bigger is not always better.

I’ve spent most of my career (and personal life) focused on niche communities, and how publishing and media companies serve and enable those communities.

With the advent of the web, publishers and media brands are empowered with more data and access to those they are serving, what they need most, and how well current products and efforts are doing. And yet, I keep seeing a common theme: focusing more on growth to a wider audience, at the detriment to the original community they were tasked to serve. Now, I’m human, I understand the inherent desire to always grow – in power, in scope, in revenue, in influence. But what I become concerned about is the adverse effects to the community, when a single entity focuses more on their own growth. In a true community, power lies with the whole, not the few.

I chatted about this the other week with Scott Gould. He runs an event/community called “Like Minds.” I asked him a question about the pressure he feels to not just put his efforts to serving his existing community, but the drive that most have to expand that community. That, someone like him must feel the pressure to grow and grow and grow until Like Minds is as big as the TED conference/community.

This question really challenged him, as it challenges all of us. How much of our sense of personal success is wrapped up in this? That it’s not good enough to serve a small existing community, that sometimes ego prompts event/community organizers to look past them, increasing their own influence. That somehow, more power, that a larger audience, will mean that this SMALL good thing will become a LARGE good thing. But I can’t help but see parallels to modern day politics, where every candidate feels the world would be a better place if only THEY were in power – and elected officials spend too much of their term in office campaigning for the next election, instead of serving those they were elected to help.

This is the problem I see with some companies:

They have no vision, they have only desire.

Tons of publishing companies passed on Harry Potter when JK Rowling was shopping it around. But, after it’s success, many publishers tried to replicate that success with similar themes in books, aimed at the same audience. It was all wizards until Stephenie Meyer came around and then it was all vampires.

It’s the McMansionification of media. To be large, and desirable. To be all things to all people.

Why are some media companies and publishers struggling? Sometimes it’s because they look at their audience from too far away, and through a hazy lens. They see a wide landscape of potential audiences, and aim to please as many of them as possible. The temptation to scale, to find mass market success is too much to pass up.

Look at many niche media websites: their homepages have dozens and dozens and dozens of links. There are blinking things everywhere, too many categories, and a page that scrolls through 4 or more screens. And this, for even small niche brands that are serving a limited community.

It’s like they have an inability to focus – to determine who they are serving, what is most important to them, and how to connect that to a business model that makes everyone happy. So they put everything on the same level of being “critically important,” hoping that something takes, hoping no one is offended that something was left out.

In many ways, the web is antithetical to most of how mass media worked in the 20th century.

The web does an incredible job of organizing and engaging small groups. What’s more, it gives a business data to measure how well they are serving that community; tools to research what their community needs; the ability to improve their product offering quickly and easily; and it removes boundaries for profitability by allowing businesses to run leaner and serve community members anywhere in the world.

But the flip side of this is the traditional media model: The desire for more more more. This is why the term “viral” is so enticing to big businesses. And that’s fine for those larger businesses and media companies. The danger is when niche media brands look beyond their niche community, when they try to scale up, at the detriment of their original audience and mission.

What is wrong with merely engaging a devoted audience of limited size? An expert, passionate audience who holds you in the highest regard because you helped make their lives better.

The web has brought so many challenges for traditional publishers and media companies. Yet, I can’t help but feel that this is a positive change – that digital media and social media is your chance to shine – to engage – to shape – to innovate – to build – to matter.

But mostly, it’s your chance to care. To channel the energy and passion and expertise of your audience for positive changes to the community you serve.

-Dan

How to Serve an Online Community: The Legacy of Daniel Jezek

There is so much talk about businesses creating and serving “communities” on the web. Inherent in this is their social media strategy, how they are adjusting marketing tactics to become “community” tactics. This is a topic I have been addressing again and again recently: how to differentiate what it means to serve a community vs selling to a market.

Today, I want to give you a profound example of what it means to serve a community online; What it means to help a community grow and connect; What it means to enable commerce in a way that enables and builds; What it means to serve, and not to own.

Daniel Jezek died suddenly last month at the age of 33. This was a shock to the community he served. For more than a decade, he created new ways for the community to connect with each other via the web. He created an online marketplace consisting of more than a hundred million items available for sale at any given moment. He helped a community a grow – serving the needs of both adults and children. His work crossed international lines, with members from around the world actively engaging with each other.

What is it that Daniel Jezek created? It was a website called BrickLink.com that served the LEGO community. Now, I’ve written about LEGO in the recent past, and have to admit, LEGO has been a hobby of mine throughout my life. Yes, I probably own way more LEGO toys than your children do.

But luckily, I’m not alone, and Daniel Jezek’s website helped to validate this hobby. More than 51 million people have visited the website he created.

What was BrickLink? It serves several functions:

  • It was an online marketplace where you could buy or sell individual LEGO bricks and sets. If you needed 40 of a particular piece for something you were building, you could find it on BrickLink.
  • It allowed businesses to be born, as sellers on BrickLink
  • It had an incredible reference catalog – giving each item a number and establishing a common cataloging system for the thousands and thousands of LEGO parts.
  • It also cataloged the many LEGO sets that have existed over decades past. Want to know what parts were in a set from 1977? You could find out on BrickLink.
  • Memberships and forum – you could join BrickLink, establish a reputation and chat with other LEGO fans from all around the world.

With BrickLink, Daniel connected the LEGO community, and he helped it grow in ways no one else did – by giving them a resource to buy and sell pieces, and a way to have it all make sense.

What is interesting about BrickLink is that it didn’t need an especially beautiful website. It largely looked the same since it launched 10 years ago. It also didn’t really seem to integrate any modern social media elements. Just basic website functionality.

But do you want to know what it REALLY meant? Read some of the notes of condolence when the BrickLink community learned of Daniel’s passing. These messages are the best lesson I can think of in terms of what it means to serve a community online. A selection:

BrickLink has been part of my families life for as long as my children can remember, it feels like one of the family (as did Dan). You will be greatly missed and your hard work and legacy will live on through this website for many years to come.
– Roo

Dan’s talent created an amazing website but this place is so much more than just a website, it’s a global community working together to support a hobby, more a lifestyle for some, genius. This is an achievement that Dan’s family and friends can be truly proud of and I believe this community will strive to keep it going in a way that will honour his great work for many years to come.
– Robert

I’m at a loss for words. BL has been my second home for much of my adult life.
– tEoS

It’s moments like these that are always time to give pause, and to respect what others before have accomplished and made possible for everyone that comes after. The site has helped to connect many across the globe, uniting us as one big family. The site he bore has not only united AFOLs looking to exchange parts, but helped some to pay their bills during trying economic times, helped some create cottage style business success, and even others full blown commercial enterprises employing countless number of people. Dan touched many more lives than he could ever be aware of, and right now we all grieve for his family, and hope that the tremendous amount of support that has and will continue to spill forth from this community he created will provide his family some solace during this trying time.
– BrickShop206

The man was responsible for altering a hobby. In my eyes, this website has turned
a toy into an art medium. The other sites are the art galleries.
-Remy

What Dan created is pure genius,and something truly remarkable. This site has made an impact on my LEGO hobby, and the LEGO community. He did something not a lot of people do now-a-days; he left a legacy behind, something that can be used for years to come.
NBFire_Rescue89

BrickLink altered the course of my life. My children have grown up with it.
-Melanie

I never knew Dan personally, and only had the briefest of contacts with him through Bricklink, yet this young man has had such a profound impact on my life. I spent many years working all hours for unappreciative bosses in sales management roles. After being made redundant at the end of 2001 I found Bricklink and the rest is history. Words cannot express my appreciation for Dan’s insight and achievement. The real thanks must come from my 2 children who have had their dad working at home for the last 9 years. Thank you Dan for letting this father actually be there for his children.
– Slim

My sincere condolences to his family and friends. May your pain be alleviated by your pride in knowing that Dan leaves behind a legacy which will continue to positively affect countless people for many years to come.
– Foster

Bricklink has probably been the #1 reason I’ve continued in this hobby, without it I would never have come as far as I have. Thank you Dan, you will be missed.
– Tony

It is my hope and prayer that Dan’s family take comfort in the knowledge that he has created something great in his young life and that future happy memories can and will come from this creation.
– Jean

I can never truly express the joy and happiness that Dan has allowed me to experience in this LEGO community he created.
-Brad

Many sellers here including myself would never have had the opportunity to run a Lego business without the aid of Bricklink. Also, for the many collectors out there, this is the best site by far to buy anything Lego related.
– Brett

Bricklink is a masterpiece and I have made very good friends through this site. How many people can say they have done this in life? what an amazing legacy. A short life yes but what an amazing one.
– Jane

We were deeply saddened to learn of Dan’s death and would like to express our sincere sympathy to you and your family on behalf of the team here at BrickTrainShop. Your son was highly respected by the entire Lego community. He was regarded as a visionary leader by everyone. Dan’s contributions to this company during his 15 years of dedicated and selfless service were many and varied. He brought lego businesses small and large together from across the globe. Believe me, his contributions to this company will not be forgotten. Please accept our heartfelt condolences at this difficult time and we ask you to please pass these sentiments on to the family. Dan was a remarkable man. I am well aware of the difference he made in our lives and many others. Many will miss him. With sincere sympathy,
– BrickTrainShop

I, for one, can honestly say that if it weren’t for Dan’s ingenious idea of BrickLink that so many things in my life would not be where they are today. He’s touched the lives of SO MANY of us, that his passing is monumental to us all, even if it is minor in the thoughts of HOW he touched us all individually. He will be missed, more than I think most of us can say. He’s truly one of those people that with one idea created a nation of ideas, and all of us have benefited in amazing ways from it. So many friendships have been forged because of his creation of BrickLink. I hope his family will know just how much he will be missed by those that never personally knew him.
– Tracy

Rest in peace Dan, you will live in every LEGO that passes through here.
– Agent_0937

What you created here is a living testament to your mark on the world, and I only hope that I can leave a fraction of that kind of legacy when I depart.
– SKot

Thanks for all you did for us, Dan. You will be missed! I just love how it has kept evolving as needed with input from the community. I have visited the site almost daily since I created my account 4+ years ago to look up a part or a set or a minifigure and sometimes (although not a lot recently) to come here to the forum and be a stick in the mud or a light in the dark or just lurk and glean the info as it flowed by. No matter what my goal, I have relied on Bricklink to help me decide how to procure my Lego needs. Thank you so much! You will not be forgotten.
– Andrew

I did not know Dan personally but this site is like my 2nd home and for that I thank him. He leaves behind an amazing legacy.
– Joe

this young man, in the short years given to him, created something that has provided pleasure, amusement, income, and community to so many. What a tragedy. Thank you for what you have given us. It is the best memorial anyone could hope to have.
– Gylman

Strange to read when people die who you never met but had such an impact on your life. Have a good night, and lets all keep Dan’s memory alive here.
– Lutz

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Dan’s family. I hope they know how much of a positive impact his creation has had to an entire hobby and “his” community. I’m sure they will see just how many lives he has touched and how appreciative we all are for his hard work over the years. No matter what, Dan’s spirit will continue to live on here with his site and all
of us.
– MikeS and Family.

I will never forget the day I found BrickBay. I will never forget the countless doors it has opened for me. And Ill never forget the man behind it all.
Thank You Dan.
– Quick_Brick

Thank you Dan for this beautiful site and community you created for us.
– Matija Grguric

If you feel you are establishing or serving an online community in your market, you may want to ask yourself – are you serving them in a way that would elicit this type of feedback and emotion?

What Daniel created will live on. Other admins will be the caretaker, but what he created will continue to serve, continue to grow, continue to help new people.

-Dan

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