First, we must wish everyone well – with Coronavirus the horizon is moving so quickly that even as we type it’s hard to predict days and weeks, let alone weeks and months. But once we’ve managed the rapid transition from centralised to remote working practices, the next challenge is to sustain revenue.

At Edit, we’ve heard from clients in sectors from publishing to events that the COVID-19 lockdown is closing doors on business opportunities throughout the summer, yet in some cases if there is a silver lining it’s in a rapid application of digital products.

Hot on the heels of the recent cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix, one publisher pivoted to broadcast an esports event for drivers who would otherwise hang up their helmets. Another is launching a social media campaign to build audience digitally to mitigate a season of postponed events and lost revenue. A third is a national food brand ramping up digital home delivery while its usual roster of supplied supermarkets is feeling the pressure.

Ideas such as these can be extended further than you might think. At Edit, we are specialists in accelerated digital transformation – we launched a new website for Empire magazine in just six weeks – and our technology is designed not only to optimise speed to market, but also cost.

Ecohustler was transformed from blog and social media movement to mature digital brand in a little over a month using Edit (the subject of a recent Breakfast Briefing we ran at PPA headquarters), while the website you are looking at right now was built at similar pace. Our current record from lightbulb moment to live in market is six days.

The Edit engineering team is on hand to help pivot, for example, a social media idea from one of your editors into a lightweight website ready to capture user data, generate new leads or bring partnership opportunities. We also have strategists with deep experience in publishing and broadcasting (not to mention awards from the PPA, Emmys and Webbies) happy to engage in discovery or new, accelerated product development from apps to CMS upgrades.

In short, we’re here to help. And as a business that’s been fully remote for seven years (our then-CTO pushed Empire live over 4G from half way up a European mountain), we have the necessary expertise to hit the ground running, even while the world is in flux.

Please do reach out via edit.com or direct to myself or one of the Edit co-founders via hello@edit.com and see if we can help.

—

Will Lebens is a Founding Partner at Edit.