By Stephanie Pollock
A large determinant of success in the publishing industry is the ability for a firm to acutely target a “deep niche” audience. The concept behind the “deep niche” argues that a potential customer base is akin to a small but powerful rolling target of individuals seeking new information at any given time[1]. A successful publisher, then, must be willing to accommodate the ever-changing basis of customers’ needs and preferences by adapting its content to current trends. Three companies in particular—Slicebooks, E-bay, and Oyster Books—have made industry headlines in recent weeks aiming to achieve just that.
A recent article in Publishing Perspectives by Lynn Rosen highlights the transformation of Slicebooks, a start-up launched by Jill and Ron Tomich in 2011. Slicebooks markets itself as a publishing firm that offers the option to purchase e-books a la carte—in chapter increments—much as Apple’s iTunes offers for the music industry.
CEO Jill Tomich noted a deliberate move to follow market demands when deciding how to attract a specific audience. One tool her team implemented so as to further this process is a marketing platform for peer publishers. “It is a marketing and instant payment platform that gives multimedia publishers a new way to get discovered by niche mobile consumers while they are browsing in the real world,” Tomich explains. “The content targets the time, place and emotional context of the audience. Consumers discover content at the moment they want it.”[2] This system allows Slicebooks to identify and target specific deep niches at lightning speeds—thus maintaining both relevant and useful holds on a given audience’s needs, and adapting to those needs at the slightest hint of change in the consumer climate. Slicebooks’ business model, as such, serves as an excellent example of the potential for success in targeting these deep niche consumers.
Longtime e-commerce behemoth eBay, meanwhile, is refocusing its efforts to market itself as a “digital magazine” for niche audiences, according to a recent spotlight on the company in The Atlantic. “We’re in the content business,” notes the president of eBay Marketplaces Devin Wenig, and so the company plans to market that content by intersecting publishing platforms with traditional retail methodology[3]. Wenig plans to navigate his team toward this new model by providing eBay’s customers with data-driven stories about high-traffic retail searches, highlighting specific products, or discussing current trends in the marketplace. This business model allows eBay to focus its efforts on targeting the deep niche audiences who want more information about specific products on the day-to-day level.
Accordingly, eBay’s content teams hope to emphasize this prominence of their niche audiences by providing a digital magazine platform for their benefit. “Just as online communities flourish around ultra-specific sets of interests,” notes author Adrienne LaFrance, “eBay will tailor its articles to the niche users who are already the driving force behind eBay.”[4] As such, eBay’s adjustment toward this rebranding will permit an adaptive and translational relationship with its niche audience members as the needs and trends of the market continually change.
Oyster Books, similarly, has noted the importance of tailoring content to specified audiences over the past year. Oyster has marketed itself as the “Netflix of books,” according to a March 2014 editorial by Andrew Patoja in Publishing Perspectives, but the company had yet to solidify a strong footing in the market at that time. One reason for this, Patoja argued, is that the company had failed to move beyond the standards of content marketing. Instead, he stated, they must seek to redefine book discovery for consumers[5]. “Oyster should move beyond book recommendations by author and genre,” Patoja noted, and instead branch their categorization methods to features such as setting, protagonist demographics, or even writing style[6]. This broadening of search features would enable deep niche investigations of very particular topics, thus permitting a wider range of potential consumers.
Six months later, Oyster Books CEO Eric Stromberg reflected on the importance of this expansion in a recent interview with Publisher’s Weekly. “Our core mission is to help consumers find books they wouldn’t have found otherwise,” Stromberg explains. “At first people will go to Oyster to look for specific titles but over time that’s shifted to discovery through our recommendation services.”[7] The company now uses both hand-selected and algorithmic systems for creating these recommendations. As they continue to expand their investment in these features, so shall their market of niche consumers continue to utilize their services.
Overall, these three publishers demonstrate a strong case for the willingness to adapt to a niche market according to the audience’s needs. Though each company has imprinted its own efforts to redefine themselves according to the changing needs of the deep niche audience, they have also each adapted their business platforms to accommodate these trends in similar ways. Accordingly, all publishers in today’s market must identify their own methods for catering to these deep niche preferences. Doing so will allow publishers to provide specified content according to the flash trends of the current markets. As such, this focus on the needs of the deep niche will solidify a wide assortment of content in vogue for a range of potential consumers.
[1] Jensen, Michael. "The Deep Niche." The Journal of Electronic Publishing 10, no. 2 (2007). Accessed September 21, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0010.206.
[2] Rosen, Lynn. "The Start-up Learning Curve: Slicebooks Refines Its Biz Model." Publishing Perspectives, September 17, 2014.
[3] LaFrance, Adrienne. "EBay Wants to Be a Digital Magazine of Things." The Atlantic, May 6, 2014.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Pantoja, Andrew. "8 Ways Oyster Books Can Rule the Ebook Subscription Market." Publishing Perspectives, March 26, 2014.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Reid, Calvin. "Oyster Looks Back at a Year of E-book Subscription." Publisher's Weekly, September 15, 2014.
A large determinant of success in the publishing industry is the ability for a firm to acutely target a “deep niche” audience. The concept behind the “deep niche” argues that a potential customer base is akin to a small but powerful rolling target of individuals seeking new information at any given time[1]. A successful publisher, then, must be willing to accommodate the ever-changing basis of customers’ needs and preferences by adapting its content to current trends. Three companies in particular—Slicebooks, E-bay, and Oyster Books—have made industry headlines in recent weeks aiming to achieve just that.
A recent article in Publishing Perspectives by Lynn Rosen highlights the transformation of Slicebooks, a start-up launched by Jill and Ron Tomich in 2011. Slicebooks markets itself as a publishing firm that offers the option to purchase e-books a la carte—in chapter increments—much as Apple’s iTunes offers for the music industry.
CEO Jill Tomich noted a deliberate move to follow market demands when deciding how to attract a specific audience. One tool her team implemented so as to further this process is a marketing platform for peer publishers. “It is a marketing and instant payment platform that gives multimedia publishers a new way to get discovered by niche mobile consumers while they are browsing in the real world,” Tomich explains. “The content targets the time, place and emotional context of the audience. Consumers discover content at the moment they want it.”[2] This system allows Slicebooks to identify and target specific deep niches at lightning speeds—thus maintaining both relevant and useful holds on a given audience’s needs, and adapting to those needs at the slightest hint of change in the consumer climate. Slicebooks’ business model, as such, serves as an excellent example of the potential for success in targeting these deep niche consumers.
Longtime e-commerce behemoth eBay, meanwhile, is refocusing its efforts to market itself as a “digital magazine” for niche audiences, according to a recent spotlight on the company in The Atlantic. “We’re in the content business,” notes the president of eBay Marketplaces Devin Wenig, and so the company plans to market that content by intersecting publishing platforms with traditional retail methodology[3]. Wenig plans to navigate his team toward this new model by providing eBay’s customers with data-driven stories about high-traffic retail searches, highlighting specific products, or discussing current trends in the marketplace. This business model allows eBay to focus its efforts on targeting the deep niche audiences who want more information about specific products on the day-to-day level.
Accordingly, eBay’s content teams hope to emphasize this prominence of their niche audiences by providing a digital magazine platform for their benefit. “Just as online communities flourish around ultra-specific sets of interests,” notes author Adrienne LaFrance, “eBay will tailor its articles to the niche users who are already the driving force behind eBay.”[4] As such, eBay’s adjustment toward this rebranding will permit an adaptive and translational relationship with its niche audience members as the needs and trends of the market continually change.
Oyster Books, similarly, has noted the importance of tailoring content to specified audiences over the past year. Oyster has marketed itself as the “Netflix of books,” according to a March 2014 editorial by Andrew Patoja in Publishing Perspectives, but the company had yet to solidify a strong footing in the market at that time. One reason for this, Patoja argued, is that the company had failed to move beyond the standards of content marketing. Instead, he stated, they must seek to redefine book discovery for consumers[5]. “Oyster should move beyond book recommendations by author and genre,” Patoja noted, and instead branch their categorization methods to features such as setting, protagonist demographics, or even writing style[6]. This broadening of search features would enable deep niche investigations of very particular topics, thus permitting a wider range of potential consumers.
Six months later, Oyster Books CEO Eric Stromberg reflected on the importance of this expansion in a recent interview with Publisher’s Weekly. “Our core mission is to help consumers find books they wouldn’t have found otherwise,” Stromberg explains. “At first people will go to Oyster to look for specific titles but over time that’s shifted to discovery through our recommendation services.”[7] The company now uses both hand-selected and algorithmic systems for creating these recommendations. As they continue to expand their investment in these features, so shall their market of niche consumers continue to utilize their services.
Overall, these three publishers demonstrate a strong case for the willingness to adapt to a niche market according to the audience’s needs. Though each company has imprinted its own efforts to redefine themselves according to the changing needs of the deep niche audience, they have also each adapted their business platforms to accommodate these trends in similar ways. Accordingly, all publishers in today’s market must identify their own methods for catering to these deep niche preferences. Doing so will allow publishers to provide specified content according to the flash trends of the current markets. As such, this focus on the needs of the deep niche will solidify a wide assortment of content in vogue for a range of potential consumers.
[1] Jensen, Michael. "The Deep Niche." The Journal of Electronic Publishing 10, no. 2 (2007). Accessed September 21, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0010.206.
[2] Rosen, Lynn. "The Start-up Learning Curve: Slicebooks Refines Its Biz Model." Publishing Perspectives, September 17, 2014.
[3] LaFrance, Adrienne. "EBay Wants to Be a Digital Magazine of Things." The Atlantic, May 6, 2014.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Pantoja, Andrew. "8 Ways Oyster Books Can Rule the Ebook Subscription Market." Publishing Perspectives, March 26, 2014.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Reid, Calvin. "Oyster Looks Back at a Year of E-book Subscription." Publisher's Weekly, September 15, 2014.