Publish your story at the right time
Tech-publisher Wired is working their own multiplatform ecosystem by using platform characteristics to add value to their content. Since Scott Dadich entered the room in 2012 as editor-in-chief, Wired increased its total audience by 42% while winning multiple awards for its content and design.
Those platform characteristics do not come solely in the usual suspected forms, like for Instagram or their smartphone app. They managed to add value with stories of 2000-3000 words, established an audience for it and claimed the subject matter ownership in the digital environment it is published. It is innovative of use, not of content, and learning material for all publishers.
Wired was one of the first iPad publications to use matured interactive infographics, which offered rich and layered information with the user on the steering wheel. Wired showed in their content approach that they were - and still are - breathing innovation in the true sense of it: to know what’s coming next, and be there first.
"I’m really glad to be moving past the static notions of discrete digital ‘issues’ and onto stream-based content platforms. I’m really excited about Wired’s ability to shape new interaction modes for small, medium, and long form stories - especially on the upcoming iPad Pro. That thing is a monster!"
"Instead of focusing on 40 pieces a month - in print - I’m now setting the parameters for and supporting my colleagues on 40-50 stories a day, across nearly a dozen platforms", Scott says. "Not that all of that media will be published today; some work won’t be public for many months - years even." Find the right time for each kind of content, and not before it is a perfect fit for the supporting platform.
Scott Dadic speaks of 'design storytelling', as design being the glue that makes the total of elements more than the some of their parts. Having been creative director of the publication from 2006-2010, his sensitivity for the visual part of storytelling is highly developed. But the basis is clear: "The story is the fundamental unit we focus on."
A fruitfull startegy, it shows.