Micro-content and cannibalization

David Meerman Scott is the author of Cashing in with Content. He also has a very interesting blog called Web Ink Now. He even has a pretty cool Squidoo lens about content. But I am blogging specifically of a fantastic column he wrote this month for EContent called “Fearing Content Cannibalization”.

The column remarks how publishers are afraid to sell bits and pieces of information, micro-content, fearing that sales of micro-content will eat up their profits from selling larger slices of information. Scott uses the example of selling content as small as “charts, graphs, tables, or pages of reports”. Apparently there’s a lot of skepticism from publishers about their ability to make money selling content that small. But as Scott points out, “smart publishers know the name of the game is offering different slices of the same content via multiple distribution channels”.  He goes on to suggest marketing each slice to the people who need those slices.

As a librarian, I can say that this is one of the most frustrating aspects of doing research. There are often times I need specific pieces of information. This may be chapters in a book, pictures or charts from a report, or data from a survey. The ability to purchase small chunks of information rather than having to subscribe to services, or purchase large amounts of content (most of which go to waste), would be a great help, and I’m sure would actually be a money-generator. I have refused to purchase the larger content pieces, opting to find the information another way. That’s money, business, consumers, that publishers and content dealers are throwing away.

This also, obviously, fits in to the Long Tail theory which is all the rage nowadays. Scott also discusses the long tail on his blog. I read the blog, and have the book, but have yet to read it. I’m still finishing up The Jasons: The Secret History of Science’s Postwar Elite.

Technorati Tags: content, micro-content, long tail