Business Transition Lessons from Publishing & the Internet Revolution

"Transition" in business models is nothing new to green companies.  Traditional methods don't work.  New technologies must be bought, paid for and learned on the fly. New marketing methods adopted that emphasize transparency, reporting, FTC regulations about environmental messages...plus all the struggles to find qualified people with some green and sustainable business knowledge...and maybe a bit of experience?

Transition is also being faced by print media, and maybe there are lessons we can learn from these highly public companies that are having to make significant changes in full light of their communities:

Print-Online Transition Is Possible
The New York Times

Among the big questions currently hovering over the media industry is can print media survive the transition to the Internet? The question has taken on new urgency, as the tanking economy places even more pressure on newspapers and magazines (whose customers and advertisers were already heading to the Internet in droves even before the recession).

The experience of International Data Group, a technology publisher, suggests that it can be done. The privately held company claims to have successfully migrated its publications to the Internet, where online ad revenue now surpasses that of print. However, the transition was not seamless: It took years of investment, upheaval and changes in its journalism practices.

"The excellent thing, and good news, for publishers is that there is life after print - in fact, a better life after print," said Patrick J. McGovern, the founder and chairman of I.D.G. InfoWorld, the company's flagship publication, completely moved its operations to the Web a year ago. In April 2007 it generated ad revenue of $1.5 million on a slight operating loss. Today, the Web site makes $1.6 million a month with an operating profit margin of 37%. Overall, 52% of the company's revenue is from online ads, while 48% comes from print.  SOURCE:  NYTimes.com

It can take months of waiting nervously to see if significant changes take root and survive infancy to flourish:

The biggest single step in I.D.G.’s online shift came in 2007, when the last print edition of InfoWorld appeared and it became a Web-only publication.  The technology publisher has not just stabilized its business, but is also  growing at about 10 percent a year.

One strategy that transitioned over time is adopting an “online first” business model. Three years ago, the editorial staff was divided into three people who worked on the Web site only and the rest only on print. Today, there are no print and Web barriers. The total staff size, at 23, is one fewer than in 2005, but now most of them spend 80 percent of their time on the Web, while a handful of writers spend 80 percent of their time on the long centerpiece articles in the print magazine.

That same strategy can work for traditional companies that are transitioning into the green space.  By building an inside team who work through the transition one step at a time, they build the infrastructure, the corporate intelligence, and prepare the new managers for the new world. 

Larger, traditional companies have the luxury of this kind of transition, notwithstanding a corresponding problem that arises out of a fast transition to climate change regulations that necessitate a speedy response.

Smaller companies that are "totally green" don't have that traditional revenue behind them...nor do they have the legacy staff, the legacy shareholder expectations, or the legacy management to convince every step along the way.

But what is clear in the board rooms around the world, is that the green transition is of as great, or greater seachange than the Internet.  The survival of entire cities and corporate land holdings are just one of the dangers that are driving this transition.