Just Publish It
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During my time working and consulting in various aspects of the content industry, I have held numerous conversations about exactly what we as communicators do for a living.
In particular, one most memorable conversation was with a senior executive at an aerospace company where I led the Technical Publications department. I may be paraphrasing him, but during our discussion, his most unforgettable statement went something like this:
I don’t understand what’s so difficult – anyone can write. All you have to do is create the content and then just publish it.
Disregarding the condescending nature of this gentleman’s remark as well as his total misunderstanding about what my team actually did, the words that really stuck with me were:
Just publish it!
What exactly did that mean? It’s something I’ve thought a lot about ever since. Over the last couple of decades, the industry has invested a lot of time, attention, and software development into a variety of initiatives, including:
Authoring and managing content in more efficient ways
Making content reusable
Creating new delivery formats and media
But what about the process of taking that content and getting it ready for delivery to the end user
When you really start to think about it, the phrase ‘just publish it’ covers a multitude of steps, as well as external pressures to tighten schedules and produce more with the same (or fewer) resources.
What does ‘just publish it,’ mean to you?
Alan
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Weekly #CX Thought
Today, organizations need to present the right content, data and systems to both customers and employees when and where they need them, in a predictable, reliable, and secure manner.
Content Discovery Workshops - Now Booking for Q2/24
THE CONTENT POOL is offering a special discount on our two-day Content Discovery Workshops for newsletter subscribers and readers.
We are now taking workshop bookings for Q2/2024, and we wanted to make sure that as a newsletter reader you got an early opportunity to lock-in a date.
As a reminder during these on-site in-person workshops workshop we will:
Develop your content vision
Identify opportunities to leverage your content in new ways
Map out the path to transform your enterprise content.
It will be followed by two deliverables:
Key observations document
High-level content transformation plan
A quick overview of the standard workshop format can be found at https://the-content-pool.com/workshops/
If you would like more details, or you like to discuss reserving a date for yourself and your team to benefit from a Content Discovery workshop, just email us at info@4jsgroup.com
In The Bookstore
If you enjoy the contents of this newsletter and would like more, we have three books always available from XML Press.
You can also check out The Content Pool website or follow us on FaceBook or on Twitter/X at @TheContentPool
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Till next time - have fun paddling in The Content Pool.
Alan Porter
The Content Pool™ is a division of the 4Js Group LLC
What did that guy mean by "just publish it?"
I worked for someone who operated just like this when I was in the trade magazine business. What that meant in plain English was that he really didn't know anything about what my team and I did or the value of it, and didn't care to know either.