Custom publishing – what is it?

Custom publishing, also called customer publishing or content publishing, is one of the most dynamically growing sector of marketing communication in the world. On western markets and in developed countries this unique medium has been an indispensable tool used in communication with customers, employees and business partners for many years. Custom publishing is the whole service industry that includes not only branch magazines, company magazines or consumer magazines, but also online magazines (e-zins), newsletters, WWW sites, dedicated applications, catalogues, flash presentations – everything that can be helpful to companies, organisations, corporations and institutions in building customers’ trust towards their brand, strengthening the brand awareness and, as a result, increasing the their profits and recruiting new customers.

Custom publishing – prospects for its development

Since 1999 Custom Publishing Council (CPC) and the Publication Management bulletin have been doing researches on the custom publishing market that include all the characteristic aspects of custom publishing (e.g. the average size of custom publishing titles and their distribution, publications migration – or lack of it – on the Internet, colours they use, etc.). In the interview conducted for the Custom Executive magazine on 27 April 2007, Managing Director of the Custom Publishing Council, Lori Rosen, sums up the custom publishing sector saying that it is developing faster than traditional media. Researches show an increase in all the growth factors – the number of titles, pages, colours and incomes. Considering companies’ and their customers’ growing needs and requirements, further and intensive development of this market seems inevitable.

Custom publishing – advantages of using these services

More and more companies understand the benefits that come from using custom publishing methods in companies’ operations and development. More and more companies realise that it is more difficult to achieve professional results and the highest quality on one’s own. Thus, companies start to turn to experts in custom publishing. In this way:

• companies have the access to the best and most talented professionals in the publishing sector (authors and consultants, graphic designers, editors, proofreaders, translators, photographers, journalists);
• it is possible to reduce the costs connected with involving employees in the work on the company magazine by giving this task to an external company;
• an internal communication team can save thousands of working hours a year and focus on its basic competencies.