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Do Association Publications Create Value?
Posted by Rebecca Rolfes on May 13, 2008
When I was at Digital Now in Orlando, I found out a lot of things about a lot of things. I found out that Goofy serves tea. I found out that you can buy a bottle of wine stocked next to cans of baby formula. I found out from Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, that all search sucks. I found out that just when I was figuring out what Web 2.0 really meant, I need to get ready for Web 3.0. I’ve found out that 2008 will be the year of social networks for one association after another.
In the midst of all this, I started thinking about value. I started wondering why at the last association conference I went to (about globalization) not a single participant mentioned their magazine unless I brought it up. Whereas at this conference, member communications was all anyone talked about. Digital communications rather than print, but even so.
I’m wondering whether the feeling within associations is that technology creates value whereas publishing is just a product that communicates value already created. Have associations been publishing for so long that they’ve forgotten that for many members the communications they receive—print or online—is the brand? If it’s true that most members are what you’d call “mailbox members,” those that never come to a meeting, never join a committee, never participate in any way, the magazine, the website, the e-newsletter is their only contact with the association. And if that’s not creating value instead of just repackaging other association offerings, then we might as well all go home now.
Tagged with: magazines, mailbox members, value, web 3.0
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