HotTopics: Agile Publishing And The New Breed Of Publishers

Author: Marc Strohlein, Chief Agility Officer

Agility is the new imperative for publishers. Publishers saddled with long product lead times and inflexible content and technology infrastructures will increasingly be left in the dust by those who have implemented more nimble processes and technology platforms. This HotTopics defines agile publishing, describes its attributes and technologies, and gives examples of publishers that are adopting its principles. Agile publishing is characterized by a nimble mindset that sees products as modular and flexible; by a focus on fast and efficient processes that trades 'product completeness' for time to market; and by layers of technology that enable format

- and media-independent content to be stored and easily repurposed. This HotTopics includes examples of firms providing agile content (O'Reilly Publishing, CMP Media), agile delivery (Cerado), and agile interfaces (FinancialContent). It concludes with a list of essential actions for publishers, and a table of companies involved in agile publishing at some level.