It?s fun to be growing again.
After several years of rightsizing our business, it is time to add employees and resources.
The contraction period wasn?t all bad. We transitioned successfully from a primarily print to digital business, and added several new markets and titles in the process. (The business now has regional publications/websites and eletters for upwards of eight major US markets).
But if you?ve been following the news media news about the news media (that?s quite a phrase), you?ll know that advertising-dependent traditional print and broadcast media have had a tough time adapting to the new digital realities. Simply put, the pricing and market competition for digital publications is so powerful that conventional media have trouble competing. They have needed to cut, and cut some more, to adapt to the changes.
In our adaptation, we reduced headcounts and costs, consolidating jobs as we increased productivity. We can now produce profitable publications on what would have been previously uneconomic numbers, and make things work.
The new rules also create new opportunities, and this is why we are preparing to launch Ontario Construction News in the next few months as a digital newspaper. This means, while we?ll need to hire a competent staff editor, build new information technology resources, and structure solid administrative and back-office functions, we don?t need to print thousands of copies of the publication and put them in the mail. In other words, we can adapt our digital publishing know-how effectively in an intense, daily publishing cycle.
While the architecture, engineering and construction industry hasn?t yet experienced the blast-power forced technological change publishers have lived through, there are signs that there will be big changes in the years ahead, with modular and information-technology-driven building processes taking an increasing market share.
While this transition will likely be jarring and painful, I can see now that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And when you get through it, you?ll realize how much more you can achieve with far fewer resources.
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