Marketing Techniques Post 1945 for Digital and Print Publications

The history of publications is diverse as per achievements and very interesting to look back at. This research paper will reveal the diversity of the digital and print publications’ development since 1945 – the postwar period until contemporary times. The digital publications are taking over the reading market with an enormous speed, looking at the history of marketing techniques it will be possible to draw a conclusion why it happened and what force the public cling to the digital mean of publications. The print publications are the innovative technologies that provide every contemporary reader with the information needed and with an opportunity to find the most relevant information, whereas print publications are classic though do not provide the reader with as many opportunities as digital means do.

Introduction

The publication service was established more than five hundred years ago, and then the only purpose of the service was executing the orders of the King. Fortunately, the entire service has gone through many changes and today it presents the democratic way of societal expression, though there were times in the history of marketing techniques for publishing that were considered not profitable enough. There have been alternations in interests of readers and the actual focus of publication since 1945: “For much of the post-war period what went on inside publishing houses was fairly uniform and constant, whether the firm was a giant like Collins, publishing children’s books from offices in both Glasgow and London, or an optimistic venture set up by hopeful amateurs employing one secretary and a traveller”¹. People are nowadays aware of any world event right away due to innovative technologies and mass publications, as well as about the new books of various genres². Remarkably, the nationalization of the publications was not a starting point for the diversifying of the services. The foremost goal was to satisfy the demands of the society of readers and, of course, limit the overheads. However, unfortunately a half of the innovations that were launched failed due to unprofitableness and inefficiency. However, still, the print publications were a possession of the nation and it could not just be relegated to obscurity. Thus, the publication industry today is profitable and commercialized due to various marketing techniques in publishing.³

Publishing is the activity of performing books to the public domain. The publishers and editors decide what to publish and make everything possible to produce it in a commercial format to secure the profit. Afterwards the books are sold through the retailers or wholesalers.

Print Publications. Case Study

Unlike UK alternations, the US publishing industry in 1945 was merely a cozy and comfortable place for authors, editors, and eventually the readers⁴. However, the similarity was seen in the dominance of the trade houses over the publication organizations, it was rather a cultural heritage than a profitable affair. Moreover, the issues of finances took the second place when it came to discussing the problems of literature and taste in this or that publication. The publication institution was considered to be an independent establishment, the creators of which magnificently created the intellectual life of the United States of America. In 1947 there were 648 book publishing houses. According to Bowker Annual in 1974 the 9,182 new titles came into the world, the revenues for which rose up to $435.000.000. Remarkably, the publication marketing techniques were met gladly by the public and the new 1,307 fiction paperbacks were published. The cost for one was $2.66. According to Michael Korda⁵, in 1947 the number one national bestseller was ‘Miracle of the Bells’ by Russel Janney. One of the best marketing techniques for the print publications was selling of books via mail or in department stores and book clubs. It has to be noticed that those were the postwar time and there was nothing like Internet today or the digital technologies, hence the means people found out about new books publication were newspapers, transportation terminals, and newsstands. In a word, the social marketing was used in order to convince people to buy specific literature⁶.

Cambridge University Press

This was a marketing technique used by Cambridge University Press in 1970s as well. Cambridge University Press was and still is one of the leading publishing houses⁷. The main slogan of this publisher is: “To further through publication the University’s objective of advancing learning, knowledge and research worldwide”⁸.

There were many marketing techniques in print publications before the age of Internet came. While the book publications were made available to the readers via social marketing, the newspapers, magazines, AM radio, etc became a strong competitor to a common book buying activity.

It has to be noticed that by the time of publishing expansion in 1990s in the US, the marketing technologies were diversifies greatly. The commercials on TV included books’ promotion in order to reach their readers ⁹. By 2005 publishing had changed significantly because the US department of Commerce tracked already about 3,500 publishing companies of various sizes. Darnton¹⁰, in 1980s expressed a thought that the publications gained a new meaning for the world literary heritage. He speculated on the issue saying that it was rather a continuous model rather than linear. Starting in 1980s the publication marketing techniques become various due to the wish of publishers to satisfy the interests of the readers. A new society of readers and publishers was born. From then on, meeting the demands of public was the foremost marketing technique to follow, otherwise the recession of literary upraise would have been observed. “Indeed, the word circuit, with it implication that the process is continuous rather than moving towards completion, is a fundamental concept to contemporary book historians”¹¹.

Routledge Publishing Holdings Ltd

Another Publishing House called Routledge famous today for its solid place within the literary world and for the log history used o use wide range of marketing techniques in order to promote their products. One of which was using the Newspapers, Magazines, Portfolio, Brochures, Tabloids and Pamphlets. They placed their advertisements in the classified section of newspapers, magazines etc. It required more space, provided colored images and brought more profit than any other type of marketing techniques. Although this technique was very effective, its price was corresponding – the wider was the space used, the higher charges appeared. Moreover currently, the magazines happen to be the most effective marketing technique for print publications. First of all, they attract more audience and can get spread internationally. The magazines are available at different continents and countries, whereas the newspapers’ affect is limited to cities and provinces. It needs to be noted here that magazines of various kinds are likely to cover all possible themes interested to the reader – the entertainment, science, automobiles, and for example politics, so the wider the range is the more effective this marketing technique will be.

Digital Publications’ Invasion

As time went by, a new means of marketing techniques for publications was invented due to the span of time and history the Internet technologies and digital marketing. Although Internet is a huge breakthrough nowadays, digital marketing covers many more fields for us to understand how broad the marketing strategies are in order to bring the products of mass media available to the public. In order to explain what the difference between Internet marketing and digital marketing is, it is necessary to understand that Internet marketing focuses on conveying the news about products and services only through the Internet market. However, digital marketing technologies are not bound to the Internet only; it is well-known that digital publications are created by means of all elements of digital media and is not limited to Internet as marketing technology. Those are any types of audio or video forms that are made available to the public to hear or see. The examples of the digital marketing techniques are mp3, Midi or WMA files that are available on Internet and not only. As per the visual data, except for the famous Internet sites, digital marketing strategies are exercised through animated flash and graphic design. Fortunately, the overall technical progress has gone very far nowadays and presents a variety of digital marketing media. The following are the types of media digital channels: texting friends (SMS), really simple syndication, subscription to a series of podcasts, the effective digital source is voice broadcast, video mail, banner ads, digital displays outdoors, etc. Surprisingly, having taken over the market of publications, the digital technologies are winning popularity rapidly within youth and older generation as well.

The Digital Publications’ Marketing Techniques

Basically, there two digital marketing techniques that are called ‘Push’ and ‘Pull’. These two technologies happen to be the engine of the digital publications. The push digital marketing works due to the rules of a thorough research. To be more exact, a customer in need of information about the product, or the actual product, seeks the information at organization’s websites and other sources and finds specific answers to the questions he/she had. This kind of information is usually situated at company’s websites, forums, and streaming advertisements. The remarkable feature of the pull marketing technique is that customers are always directed to the necessary site by affiliate sites and ads. The push digital marketing technique is, however, different from the latter. As well as the push technique, the pull marketing strategy presupposes that customers review advertisements digitally too, though they receive it by SMS, RSS, cell calls. This is usually an effect of interconnection of a customer and a company – an organization provides the customer with the new information in case he/she has already bought something from the service.

Understandably, both techniques have advantages and disadvantages. As per the advantages, of course, pull marketing technique requires no file size, since advertized at own sites, no high technology requirements. Nevertheless, the pull marketing requires acquiring marketing technologies in order to attract visitors, who in their turn can easily come off the service because tracking the visitors is hard, hence the chance to get those back is minimal. Push marketing is known for the advantage of high conversation rate and besides it makes it possible to track the customers’ preferences in detail. As per the shortages, the push marketing technique works under Can Spam Act 2003 compliance and the majority of customers have to take part obligatory.

Digital Publications. Marketing Solutions

The digital publication marketing solutions are exercised through the number of channels by means of which the information is delivered using both Push and Pull marketing strategies. The latter two are widely used to deliver books and other publications to the readers. The emergence of hypertext fiction is an outstanding way of communicating new books and works to the public. That was a breakthrough by Ted Nelson, it made it possible to connect the related information on the screen to make new relevant sources available to the reader interested in the same topic. Since the publication history is mostly about creating a profitable business rather than an entertainment function, digital market campaigns provided more alternation than e-marketing technique separately for the digital publications production is not limited to Internet distribution. Therefore, it I essential to note that in this country not every single citizen has a computer and access to the Internet, hence digital means like cell phones, iPods, etc, happen to be very effective in order to deliver the new information about publication products to everyone¹².

Conclusion

It is evident that the publication marketing techniques post 1945 have gone so far that it is even surprising that some people have not indulged in reading yet. The publication history is a wonderful example of how the humanity was trained to reading while there were little means of entertainment back in 1940s-1970s. The nature of marketing techniques in publishing proves the finance issues important, though not as much as the actual literary heritage or literary taste. The new era of digital publishing enhanced the need for marketing techniques in publishing¹³. Although people stopped feeling necessity in reading print publications, still they are the ground for every digital means. However, the digital publications can deservedly be called an extensive manual for learning new technologies through classic read.

References

Black, M. 2000. A Short History of Cambridge University Press. 2^nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Feather, J.2005. A History of British Publishing. 2^nd ed. Oxon: Routlegde.

Greco, A. et al. 2006. The Culture and Commerce of Publishing in the 21st Century. Stanford: Stanford Business Books.

Hartley, Jenny. 2001, 2002. Reading Groups. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Reynolds, Kimberley and Tucker, Nicholas. 1998. Children’s Book Publishing in Britain since 1945. Aldershot: Scholar Press.

Korda, M. Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999. 1^st ed. New York: Barnes & Noble Books-Imports.

Lane, Michael. 1980. Books and Publishers: Commerce against Culture in Postwar Britain.

McAleer, Joseph. 1992. Popular Reading and Publishing in Britain 1914-1950, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Mann, Peter. 1982. From Author to Reader: A Social Study of Books. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Owen, Peter. 1988. Publishing: The Future. London: Peter Owen.

Owen, Peter. 1993. Publishing Now. London: Peter Owen

Statutes J – The University Press. 2010. University of Cambridge. Web.

Footnotes

1. Reynolds, Kimberley and Tucker, Nicholas. 1998. Children’s Book Publishing in Britain since 1945. Aldershot: Scholar Press.
2. Mann, Peter. 1982. From Author to Reader: A Social Study of Books. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
3. McAleer, Joseph. 1992. Popular Reading and Publishing in Britain 1914-1950, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
4. Greco, A. et al. 2006. The Culture and Commerce of Publishing in the 21st Century. Stanford: Stanford Business Books.
5. Korda, M. Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999. 1st ed. New York: Barnes & Noble Books-Imports.
6. Lane, Michael. 1980. Books and Publishers: Commerce against Culture in Postwar Britain.
7. Black, M. 2000. A Short History of Cambridge University Press. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8. Statutes J – The University Press. 2010. University of Cambridge. Web.
9. Hartley, Jenny. 2001, 2002. Reading Groups. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10. American cultural historian. Graduated from Oxford University.
11. Feather, J.2005. A History of British Publishing. 2nd ed. Oxon: Routlegde.
12. Owen, Peter. 1993. Publishing Now. London: Peter Owen.
13. Owen, Peter. 1988. Publishing: The Future. London: Peter Owen.