NBC News is starting a new path into publishing, under the name of NBC Publishing.
They aim to produce electronic and print books under the NBC banner.
NBC Publishing’s strategy to production of books will be digital-first. Coming over from the television division of NBC are video producers and engineers who will create mixed content to enhance their books. NBC Publishing will still need to get their production processes in place, author the content, and edit and produce the actual books.
Creativity is closely tied to literature. Great writing is a completely different skill-set that NBC will have to work to improve when targeting a large reader audience.
Writers are needed, and a corporate culture capable of recognizing and promoting writing skills. NBC News has the advantage of large volumes of unseen broadcast footage that has never been aired. Beyond the archives are a much larger resource base provided by NBC News’s parent company NBC Universal.
Access to resources such as Films, Entertainment, Niche channel content such as the Sci-Fi channel can all be leveraged to create story content. Projects to release books could also be aligned with yet to be released content from any of their channels, providing cross platform marketing for their E-Books. The experience NBC will bring across for video editing, production, clearing rights, and managing copyright will leverage their existing skill set in retooling their facilities, to produce quality content without the need for outsourcing or hiring outside consultants.
NBC excels in producing formulaic market specific content to draw in viewers. Content is seen as a commodity. Thus the more NBC succeeds with this venture, the more eyeballs will be drawn away from literature and towards value-added content. A fine balance will need to be established between multimedia engagement and literary quality.
NBC Publishing has set a timeline to release their first E-Book by the end of February, and another 30 over the course of 2012.
Both enhanced content E-Books as well as tradition E-ink capable E-Books will be released. There has also been talk of the possibility for print content in collaboration with another publisher. NBC Publishing already seem to grasp the larger concept of publishing in the digital space, a convergence of technologies, media, and devices to form a single coherent product that enhances the original written E-Book.
