1) The document provides 29 steps for German digital publishers to become happy digital publishers. 2) Some of the key steps include embracing complexity, picking your battles carefully, being serious about digital, establishing a culture of failure, embracing Google and social media platforms like Facebook and Google+, and focusing on product development and marketing over just content. 3) The final step emphasizes keeping strategies and models simple and straightforward, especially regarding products, content, platforms, subscriptions, and payments.

1. Online Publishers Association, 22 June 2012
How to become a
Happy (German) Digital Publisher
in 29 easy steps
Jochen Wegner . jochen@wegner.io . http://wegner.io . 6/2012

2. 1. Stop waiting for the next big thing*.
* The Web, Display, Search, Local, Social, Mobile, Tablets, Paid, girls pinning pictures

3. 2. Embrace complexity*.
*Since there is no next big thing, you will have to deal with many small things to be successful.

4. 3. Pick your battle*.
*Don‘t fight too much against: Google, the sheere mechanics of the internet, your users, your publishing house, other digital outlets, copyright infringers

5. 4. Thou shalt not lie*.
*Especially in the course of the battles listed in 3.

6. 5. Be serious about digital.

7. 6. Fix your organization*.
*In 9 of 10 cases we see, digital business fails due to trivial organizational issues. Simply put: if there is no real digital management, there may be no
serious digital business.

8. 7. Play.

9. 8. Fail*.
* Establish a culture of failure. Your product and IT people should have the feeling that they don‘t loose their face if they fail from time to time.

10. 9. Be post-agile.

11. 10. Be more product centric.

12. 11. Think first about your journalism...

13. 12. ...then think about content development.

14. 13. Embrace Google. (See: 3.)

15. 14. Do your homework. Finally.

16. 15. Think about SEO more strategic.

17. 16. Measure. Measure again.

18. 17. Live social.

19. 18. Embrace Facebook.

20. 19. Act wisely.

21. 20. Ignore Twitter. (Hell yes, it‘s cool.)

22. 21. Learn to love G+. (Hell yes, it‘s ugly.)

23. 22. Don‘t let your own community run dry.

24. 23. Don‘t blog. Publish.

25. 24. Your core tablet strategy shall be
straight and simple.

26. 25. Publish many apps.

27. 26. Charge.

28. 27. Sell a good service. Not your content.

29. 28. Find (hybrid) subscription models.

30. 29. Be simple and straight*.
*Especially when you think about product marketing, content models, multi platform, subscription models, payment.