A presentation for the SSP conference in Arlington, VA, May 2015. The title is "Connecting to the End-user." The presentation covers the various ways that scholarly publishers can use end-user data to generate growth.

1. Connecting to the End-User
Joseph J. Esposito
SSP 2015
espositoj@gmail.com

2. Topics
• The situation of stalled growth
• Some properties of digital media and networks
• End-user information as growth vehicle
• D2C sales
• Collecting end-user information to inform
marketing and editorial
• Packaging and monetizing metadata
• What we don’t know can’t help us
• The place of new products

3. Constraints on Growth
• Developed-world markets are mostly mature
• Library funding not as robust as desired
• Global markets require infrastructure investment
• Open Access increases costs, undermines
some revenue streams, puts pressure on
margins

4. Properties of Digital Media
• Enables extensive data
collection
• Compared to print, far more
data; more opportunity,
more uncertainty
• Much of the future of digital
media is as yet unknown
• Track every click, every
view, every referral
• Combine with other end-
user data
• Privacy? Oh, that!

5. Print vs. Digital: Different Properties
•Print: Individal
subscription
model
•Enabled capture
of personal
address
•No information
about actual use
•The print silo: no
connection to
other properties

6. How Can User Data Bring Growth?
• D2C sales
• Data to inform marketing
and editorial
• Packaging (and
monetizing) metadata
• What we don’t know can’t
help us
• The place of new products

7. D2C Sales & Marketing
• Direct sales to users
• Probably best suited for
books
• Problem: Generating
Web traffic
• For journals,
subscriptions challenging
• For articles, pricing issue

8. Use Data to Inform Marketing
• D2C sales just one use of data
• Collect marketing data; valuable for
advertisers; recraft marketing campaigns
• BUT! Secular decline in advertising
• Use data to assist editorial
• BUT! Will editors listen? Church-and-state
sensitivity
• A valuable activity, but results may be highly
specific and small

9. Monetizing Metadata
• Package and sell user
data
• Opens up new
customers (e.g.,
Pharma, funders)
• Requires huge scale
• Anonymity essential
• Emerging business
with new players

10. What about Privacy?
•We don’t yet know
where this is going
•Privacy policy is
critical to forestall
challenges
•Often can work
with anonymized
data
•Data made
available to third
parties must be
anonymized—no
wiggle room here

11. Here’s the Thing about Data
• For publishers this is an entirely new area
• Ironically, some publications have long included
articles about data analytics
• As a new activity, we really don’t know where it
will go eventually
• Not self-evident that incumbents have the upper
hand
• What we don’t know can’t help us: collect the
data now

12. It is probably best to think of end-
user data as an emergent and
promising property of digital
media and networks, one that we
have to invest in now, well before
we can neatly articulate business
plans and ROI projections.

13. Exploring New Products
• Current products were
not designed for end-
user purchase; it’s an
ecosystem problem
• End-user data
mandates developing a
new class of products
• Yes, easier said than
done

14. Contact Information
• Joseph J. Esposito
• espositoj@gmail.com
• @josephjesposito
• +Joseph Esposito
• http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org