Page 20 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

Cultural business models on the Internet20thousands of formats tailored to the needs of each customer/reader/consumer. We should not forget that among other things the Internet, a world of many-but-small, is doing away with the previous world of few-but-large.Every product can come in thousands of formats tailored to the needs of each reader/customer/consumer.A book that has 100,000 readers has different economic needs to one that is read by 100 million. Perhaps the future of publishers lies in being so good on the Internet that they can secure millions of readers to whom they can provide a lot for very little money.Let us imagine a publishing company special- ised in the world of the family. Perhaps they reach an agreement with WhatsApp whereby its 400 million users can use the company’s texts in reduced format for any family event, from a Christmas tale to a birthday invitation. What about the business model? Shared subscription with WhatsApp? Instead of searching the Internet for a text I cannot find, I use the library the publisher makes available to me, which, in addition to the complete book, features dozens of WhatsApp adaptations of its best phrases.What should be clear to us all is that a book costing between 20 and 40 euros makes no sense in the long term, at least not in digital format, and that we will have to find new models which, by increasing readership or inventing new formats such as that which is described above,allow us to earn money with many customers/ readers/consumers who pay very little but are satisfied with our service.This requires an important change in the profile of the personnel we need in order to evolve digitally. Professionals will have to be well- versed in handling the Internet and its social networks but, above all, capable of listening to the unceasing murmur of change that occurs around them daily and of acting. It is necessary to try out new models, most of which will fail, but it is sufficient for a few to be fruitful for the publishing industry to return to growth in as yet unknown formats.The same impetus of change, only with even greater interactivity, will be reflected in educa- tion. We cannot continue to educate our young people in the same way as our grandparents did more than a century ago. The modern world, digital and global, requires more participatory systems and more personalised responses to prevent us losing the best people because we were incapable of understanding them.In this connection my attention has been drawn by a new publishing company that has invented customised stickers. Are you a Tintin fan? You can buy stickers of your favourite series and stick them anywhere, from your mobile to your desktop Mac. The same is possible for any hobby; let us not forget, this is the world of many but small things. Each sticker costs between 1 and 3 euros, but they have already sold several million of thousands of different series. Authors and their publishers have suddenly spotted a new merchandising system that earns them revenues where beforeChallenges of the twenty-first century. How to adapt a company to the twenty-first century