Are You Planning for the Future?
[by Jim Cavanaugh]
In challenging economic times, our business focus often becomes one of survival. How will we pay the bills due at the end of this month? How can I get that next job in the door? While getting work and paying current bills are urgent issues, they are not the most important issue.
The truly important issue and bigger challenge is the tremendous change taking place in our industry. We are seeing a massive shift from traditional print publication to web and other electronic delivery systems. While this shift has been going on for well more than a decade, the changes are accelerating at a remarkable rate with the growth of bandwidth and the flood of new digital devices to access content.
We are also seeing a rapid shift from the practice of simply placing an electronic version of a print publication on a web site. We are seeing the evolution of completely new forms of electronic publication designed for greater interactivity between the content provider and the viewer. Social network platforms have grown exponentially in importance for communication. Video and motion imagery are core components for these new forms of publication. And it’s not limited to editorial and advertising markets. A great untapped market is corporations’ web sites, e-commerce platforms and e-communications.
Are you planning for these changes? Does your business plan address the need for education and capital investment in new technologies? Are you exploring the concept of partnering with other creative people to offer more comprehensive services? Are you talking with your clients to learn how they see themselves becoming involved with these new technologies? Are you applying these new avenues of communication in your own marketing?
If you are only reacting to current economic pressures and not spending some time each week learning about and planning how to take advantage of these major changes, you may unexpectedly find yourself looking at a career change, even after the economy improves.
One Response to 'Are You Planning for the Future?'
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Couldn’t agree more!
Lucky enough to get some multimedia training a few years ago from UNC.
I was laid off last year as a photojournalist from the local newspaper, and transistioned immediately into online video production (the 5D had just made waves).
I frantically taught myself video editing and motion graphics (on lynda.com) and now business is going well. Just finished up a 30 video project for tourism.
There is a huge market for photogs willing to price themselves somewhere bewteen a photoshoot and a huge commercial video shoot (for TV). Years of being a photojournalist helps me tell my clients stories and get the message online.