While the Mediums Have Changed, Content is Still King

There are more delivery options than ever before and with those options, you get to choose.

The term “Luddite” originated with a movement led by Ned Ludd, who organized English textile workers to destroy more automated textile machinery in the belief that its use diminished employment (not an unreasonable assumption). He was later declared insane, but the term has evolved to mean any opponent of industrial change or innovation.

When it comes to the Web, one could call me one of those. But not anymore.

When we did the internal research that led to the creation of Club & Resort Business six years ago, we were surprised (pleasantly so, since we were starting a magazine) that only about 22% of you said you regularly looked to the Internet for content and information about your business. As a somewhat “senior citizen,” the Internet was sort of the bogeyman under the bed to me…I knew it was there, but I hoped it wouldn’t show up, and I certainly wasn’t going to look.

In the early Internet days, we would publish a magazine and then post (dump) our articles onto the magazine’s website. In essence, it was an online archive of our editorial content. This was not bad, and is what most publishers still do. But for a lot of technical reasons (which I barely understand), this method does not lead to easy use for readers or, more importantly, strong search capabilities.

The world has changed even since just six years ago. This editorial is a perfect example. I am writing this from an iPad in a parking lot in Detroit. (The magazine is at deadline and they need this by the end of the day, or our Managing Editor is going to kill me.) I couldn’t have done this a year ago, or maybe I could have, but I didn’t know how.

What has evolved in our thinking is that content is content, and we are nothing but a content company. There are more delivery options than ever before and with those options, you get to choose. With that in mind, you will soon have a different experience when you visit our website, www.clubandresortbusiness.com. It will look pretty much the same, but the internal organization and the flow of content will be significantly improved. Without boring you with “geek speak,” the general gist is that you will be able to search our content more easily, interact with your colleagues and peers more frequently, and find the overall experience more satisfying.

Since the original research which showed us that 22% of you wanted your information delivered electronically, that number has grown to 32%. And since there are so many delivery options available to you, we decided to change our web strategy, to better align with your preferences.

Never fear, though. C&RB will still publish monthly, arriving on your desk with a wealth of ideas to share—and we very much appreciate the almost 43 minutes you spend, on average, reading each issue. (Also, according to our research, 89% of you regularly read the magazine every month. That’s testimony to the quality of its content—which we will always deliver, just in a few more ways.)

You may remember that I did one of my annual screeds against cell phones and BlackBerries on the golf course, and preferably anywhere on the club premises, earlier this year. I received a very thoughtful reply from one of our readers, in which he posited that if we want to attract younger members (which we all do), then we shouldn’t expect success if we ban the very things I was railing against. Emotionally, I am right, which means I am indulging myself; but intellectually, I am wrong.

Anyway, I no longer think of myself as a Luddite—but the jury is still out on whether or not you do.

Tags: issue SOcial media technology websites