It is no newsflash. But in this era of instant connectivity, information has to travel fast—think blogs, podcasts, wikis and RSS feeds—or risks losing its value as it ages. Healthy bottom lines (and even survival) now hinge on a publisher's ability to execute multi-channel publishing (print, Web, CD/DVD and hand-held devices) and reuse content in the fastest way possible.
It's all about delivering content whenever customers want it from wherever they are located. (Is there any wonder then that publishers are stressed out big time?)
More than anything else, publishers need a medium-neutral, digital-centric production system that is highly automated—to minimize human errors and reduce production lead time—and flows from a single repository to ensure content fidelity across multiple formats. Enter XML (eXtensible Markup Language), with its promise of "create once, publish to many." Its tools and technologies fit the content authoring, management and delivery requirements to a T.
Trouble is, publishers are (still) singularly geared toward print distribution. While the demand for speedier delivery and multiple formats has (somewhat) driven home the message that the legacy print-centric publishing model is going the way of the dinosaurs, the paradigm shift to digital-/content-centric universe is no walk in the park. The biggest roadblock to faster XML proliferation lies in the composition process. Often, the aesthetics (as in highly designed individual pages) clash with the utilitarian (structured and platform-neutral XML content). The savvy publisher, of course, knows that implementing 40 tags to give a title, say, e-book portability or wiki-based interactivity makes more business sense than having a groovy stylized chapter with 400 tags. But that doesn't necessarily make the process any easier.
As of now, text-intensive publications take to XML like ducks to water, while those in the trade segment are arguably on the adoption slow boat. Almost every SSTM (scholarly, scientific, technical and medical) publisher has an XML story to tell—mostly one of significant cost savings, undisputable efficiencies and unexpected spinoff products. Increasing online revenues and (mostly) declining print readership mean, more than ever, that content needs to be formatted and delivered electronically, printed remotely and published selectively (by article, author or topic). Publish-before-print is de rigueur, while content extracting/ dechunking for blended products and syndication is fast becoming a money-spinner. It's no exaggeration to say that in this warp-speed, content-centric world, sticking to the status quo is the riskiest proposition of all. It's either digitize/XML or die.
Invariably, publishers would kick-start their XML adoption process with backfile conversion, a move that eases their transition to the new paradigm without jeopardizing frontlist projects. The amount of legacy content to be digitized and repurposed for new revenue streams is staggering, and this mammoth undertaking has been instrumental in making OCR (optical character recognition) applications more sophisticated. Now, static hard-copy documents can be automatically turned into dual PDF/XML pages with higher accuracy and enhanced searchability. More experienced publishers usually go for XML-first workflow, in which content is converted into XML prior to composition. Today, multiple authors, contributors and reviewers, when creating content, access a standard interface—often a Web-based manuscript submission system with accompanying tracking and reporting tools—that is managed by the content services vendor. The result is a much more robust publishing system.
The case for XML is overwhelming, heightened by a mission-critical need for content consistency, portability, efficiency, accuracy and speed. As we speak, content is being dechunked and reformatted for hand-held devices to enable, say, busy medical professionals to obtain diagnostic assistance, get updates on the latest news and research, or scan journal abstracts while on the move. Over in the classroom, content is made interactive and entertaining for students and teachers, giving boring textbooks a second (and more animated) lease on life. For those with learning and other disabilities, XML-based content with audio, video and graphic materials is further manipulated to generate specialized formats, such as Braille, large-print and digital books. In short, XML has become the enabler of content transformation and reuse. As a matter of fact, it has been replacing many behind-the-scenes protocols used on the Internet, the ubiquitous content mover of our time. Naturally, everybody is hopping onto the XML bandwagon: last heard, Windows Vista's XPS (XML Paper Specification) is going head to head with Adobe's PDF.
Meanwhile, more tools are being created to increase XML publishing efficiencies. Color-coding of the title, publication year, surname and other repetitive components, for instance, aids error scanning and inconsistency detection. It makes checking reference citations in major reference works a breeze. XrML (eXtensible rights Markup Language), on the other hand, is now capable of expressing the rights that are available and transferable—say, when there is multitiered syndication—with attached rules and conditions.
But there's always the inevitable downside: despite its amazing capabilities, XML is no silver bullet. (Well, duh.) Without internal buy-in, coupled with proper planning and execution, any XML initiative runs the risk of turning into a massive sinkhole, sucking up any efficiency gain and return on investment. However, on the execution part, you have it easy. India-based content services vendors are on hand to solve content-related challenges, help you generate new revenue streams and provide a comparatively lower-cost but high-value partnership. Their client list of who's who in the publishing world is testimony to their XML expertise. And while they don't monopolize the market, they dominate.
In summary, two scenarios accentuate the importance of (and need for) an XML-driven publishing system: that consumers will find more value in online content than in print, and that publish-before-print, on-demand and custom publishing are set to become even more prevalent in the near future. Of course, such scenes are more vivid to SSTM publishers than to those in the trade sphere. But, whichever, the question has to be asked: Can anyone ignore that fast-growing baby elephant in the room? So there's really no subtler way to say it other than this: if you're not yet an XML adopter (with several content services vendors stored on your speed dial), you are, to paraphrase, going to be trampled by an eight-ton elephant and thereby miss the boat.
