Reimagining Content: Putting the Reader First

Content creators are shaping the future by prioritising engagement over convention.

When eBooks broke out from beyond just the early-adopter tech world with the release of the Sony Reader in 2006 and most especially the Amazon Kindle in 2007 - offering a seamless delivery of eBooks to your device - the predictions for the book industry were apocalyptic. These warnings and predictions were somewhat premature and eBooks have setted at around 10% of the book market.

The problem is that many publishers are still centre their thinking around the printed book - that 60,000 words 288 page trade paperback that had become the staple of the publishing industry, with other formats and delivery mechanisms at the periphery. So the eBook simply mimicked its physical counterpart transferring the same format from paper and card to pixels and bytes but not challenging why the eBook had to be the same as the physical product. The industry convention was still to start with the ‘book’ and then look at other ways that content could be used - audiobooks, small group courses, devotionals etc. 

What if, instead of starting with and centering the book we were able to re-conceive how the written word can be used in a world more accustomed to digital consumption.What if, by centering the content and then asking what media and formats would be most effective to help people engage with it, writers, publishers, charities, and other content creators can find new, innovative, and creative ways to engage users with their life-changing content. There is a fresh opportunity to reach not just the 5% of the Church who will ever buy a Christian book, but the other 95% who are hungry for life-changing resources.

There are so many other ways that content can be communicated both in form and in length, from short-form daily readings to chapter length pieces, small group studies to self-directed learning. And that’s just thinking about the written form. Combining audio, video, and writing together in a single package offers fresh ways of creating engagement and shareability (something that will be unpacked in a future article). Like plenty of other people I love a good book, and the physical product isn’t going to go away anytime soon. But more people are seeking ways of engaging with life-giving content in the formats and media that works for them.

In creating the Christian360 platform, a determination to innovate and a relentless determination to work closely with content creators large and small to discover and implement the formats and delivery methods that will drive transformation has been at the heart of our development. The opportunity to work together to inspire and inform this generation and the next is one too good to pass up and we are excited to be a part of what the future looks like.