Those around the table raised a number of useful pointers for digital strategy product teams to bear in mind, some of which we’ve listed below.

A huge thanks to Carolyn Morgan, Managing Consultant, Speciall Media, for facilitating the discussion, and to Fabrice Bernhard and Kapil Tyagi from Theodo UK for partnering with us on this event.

If you are responsible for shaping your digital product strategy, get in touch with Aisling.hilsdon@ppa.co.uk about joining the PPA Digital Collective and attending future meetings.

Considerations

Change management style: Digital development means changing workflow, especially for editorial teams who can feel overwhelmed with the number of platforms to master. Bringing the publishing teams with you on a project journey can be more challenging than convincing senior management to invest.

Continual innovation: Digital products can’t stand still. To ensure features provide value for users it’s important to use all opportunities available to gather feedback.

Prioritisation: Knowing what to do first can at times feel like working in air traffic control. Keep sight of the purpose, be data-driven, and balance short-term fixes with long-term objectives.

Print to digital transition: It takes time to convince print readers of the value of digital. Spiralling paper prices and squeezed consumer spending could mean that digital transformation needs to be accelerated.

Advertising to reader revenue: Some publishing business models are accelerating towards subscriptions, but there’s also growing interest in gathering first-party data and analytics to enhance ad targeting. A single website may encompass a free ad-driven model and a premium subscription package.

Talent and resource: Developer talent is scarce and expensive. Availability and retention are important to consider when making decisions. This creates greater pressure when prioritising projects.

Building a business case: It’s important to keep stakeholders on side while developing a business case for investment.

Digital agencies: Digital agencies are an effective solution to resource scarcity – not only when building and launching projects but also when maintaining existing products. Theodo UK spoke about being involved in the creation of business cases, onboarding, and helping to change behaviours around adoption.

Tech selection & AI: Changing platforms needs to be a careful consideration – don’t underestimate the impact on your team. AI is of limited value for creating editorial but can help when it comes to more complex systems eg. offering tailored subscription packages to readers based on their behaviour.

Platform choice is key: Some publisher sites are heavily reliant on platforms such as google for traffic – or other social platforms. Keeping up with changing algorithms and analytics iterations can be challenging.