Transcript Digital convergence and collaboration culture: Publishing

Digital convergence and
collaboration culture:
Publishing in the context of the
wider creative industries.
Frania Hall
University of the Arts, London,
London College of Communication
• ‘Alarming macro-trends’
• Bhaskar, (2013) The Content Machine
• ‘The Media and Content Industries…. are
among the industries that have been first and
heavily hit by the digital shift’
• Simon and Bogdanowicz, (2012) JRC Policy
Brief
Changing Industry
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Technology changes – production and product
New intermediaries
Prosumers – direct to market
Blurring boundaries, format shifts
Consumer behaviour – purchasing patterns
and expectation of free
• Proliferation of business models & pioneers
• Media Convergence is more than simply a
technological shift. Convergence alters the
relationship between existing technologies
industries, markets, genres and audiences.
Convergence alters the logic by which media
companies operate and by which media
consumers process news and entertainment.
• Jenkins (2008) Convergence Culture.
This presentation
• Context for my research – the wider creative
industries
• Agenda for my research – the nature and style
of collaboration within publishing.
• Collaboration – here focusing on digital
product development.
Publishing through the lens of creative
industry thinking
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4 models of creative industries
Characteristics of creative industries
Similar challenges
Wider creative industry theory, economics
and networks
5. Studying collaborations – similarities and
differences
6. What the research will do
• ‘The publishing value chain has remained
relatively consistent since the invention of the
printing press…’
• ‘The traditional value chain…is being
disrupted and disintermediated at every stage’
Ray Murray and Squires (2013)
• ‘Technological advance in publishing has
centred around solving supply’ Nash (2010)
• ‘In a publishing version of ‘if we build it they
will come’ publishers understand that it is no
longer possible, or sensible to continue with
business as usual’ Tian and Martin (2011)
• ‘Lacking definition leave publishers horribly
exposed to the whims of history and
technology’ Bhaskar, (2013) The Content
Machine
• ‘A business about reading and writing’
Stephen Page, CEO, Faber (2011)
• ‘It’s still a book business and it needs to
become a reader business’ Michael Calder
(quoted by Sara Lloyd 2009)
• ‘Reader-centred business’ Healy (2011)
• ‘We recognize that digital books and journals
at best substitute revenues previously derived
from print’
• ‘In order to drive growth we need to go
beyond the two dimensional experience of a
digital or standard ebook’
• Stephen Smith, CEO Wiley, (2013)
• ‘The blurring of roles in the book industry
looks set to continue’ Healy 2011
Why look at the wider context?
• Creative industries face similar challenges in
digital age
• Developing and sharing knowledge from these
other industries
• Collaboration appears to be becoming wider
• Understand position and find allies to
transform effectively
Model 1
• DCMS
• Individual creativity
• Wealth creation opportunities
• Publishing is a creative content producer
• ‘Ad hoc’ Flew, (2013)
Model 2
• Concentric Circles, Throsby, (2008)
• Creativity of created product at the centre
• Production and distribution further out
• Publishing in an outer layer
• ‘Centrality of cultural value’ Flew (2013)
Model 3
• WIPO
• The IP based model
• Publishing central
• ‘Intellectual property as the embodiment of
creativity’ UNCTAD, (2010)
Model 4
• Symbolic texts Hesmondhalgh, (2013)
• Cultural texts at the centre
• Including those that are engaged in
production and circulation of those texts
• Publishing central
• ‘Directly involved in production of social
meaning’ Flew (2013)
Issues with models
• Separation of activities
• Going wider - creativity in other industries
• The art-commerce relationship
• The problems of drawing lines.
• ‘The creative industries sit on the cusp of
significant transformation.’
• Banks and O’Connor , (2009)
Characteristics of creative industries
• Issues around value, cultural production and
symbolic texts
• The art/commerce debate/paradox
• Distinctive market behaviours
• Work/experience of labour/working
conditions
• Management and organisational practices
Challenges faced by all
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Copyright
Consumer behaviour
Discoverability
Prosumer
New competitor landscape
The democracy of the internet
• The successful organisation flexible enough to
change their means as rapidly as goals change,
under the impact of fast cultural,
technological and institutional change; and to
innovate as innovation becomes the key
competitive weapon’ Cassells, (2010) The Rise
of the Network Society
• ‘In most industries, including the creative
sector, innovation is key to gaining
competitive advantage and enhancing growth
prospects.’ Bakhshi and Throsby, (2009)
• ‘Where innovation is critical, the
organisational ability to increase its sources
from all forms of knowledge becomes the
foundation of the innovative firm’ Cassells
(2010) The Rise of the Network Enterprise
The phenomenon of new styles of
collaboration
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New because:
Broader in scope (cross creative industries)
Entrepreneurial and experimental in vision
Structurally different: partnership, shared
outcomes, measurement
Study these collaborations to
ascertain:
• If they are different
• And if they are, do they reflect a more
fundamental change in structure of the
industry
• Along the way consider:
• Network theory
• Innovation theory
Collaborations around renewal
• Explorative: ‘renew their own knowledge levels’
• Entrepreneurial: ‘promote invention and
development’
• Partnerships that are: ‘Future oriented and
flourish in environments with an abundance of
entrepreneurial behaviour, creativity and
innovative strength’ Kaats and Opheij (2014)
Research approach
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Multiple cases approach (6)
Cases when exploring context and phenomenon
Variety of companies in size and publishing sector
Each case stands alone then look for replication in
other cases
Mixed methods approach for each case
Design tests for validity
Feedback loop as develop next case to refine theory
Underlying processes emerge
Multiple relativist opinions – cross-case conclusions
Theoretical frameworks
• Specific characteristics of collaboration within
creative industries
• Lens of collaboration
• Innovation theory
• Network theory
• Identity and distributed creativity theory
To explore
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Shared ambition
How everyone’s interests can be appropriately served
How working relations are developed,
Organisational behaviour as they plan it out
Behaviour and sensemaking while in action.
What makes a successful collaboration?
How far are they repeatable?
How far are they flexible?
Do they genuinely reflect an industry attempting to be
more nimble around experimentation?
From that will assess:
• Are the collaborations definitely
different/new?
• If so how?
• What is the fit with the other creative
industries?
• Is this significant enough to reflect structural
change?
The results…
• If the results show that there isn’t significant
difference in the collaborations, given the
context, should there not be more movement
towards cross-sector collaboration?
If the results show there is change..
• This may indicate not just that it is a reflection
of structural change but a driver?
• What wider economic/organisational effects
might it have?
• And what about the changing consumer….?
– Do they notice (or need to)?
– Can we get ahead of the curve?
• About similarities between industries
• But also about differences - for learning and
experimentation
• A need to form ‘more partnerships with sister
creative industries’ Stephen Page, CEO, Faber
(2011)
• ‘The model for tomorrow is try everything,
make mistakes, fail, fail better’ Neil Gaiman,
Author (2013).
• Questions?