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Web Enabled Prosumption in Print Media

When Alvin Toffler coined the term Prosumption in 1980, he may perhaps not thought about the various forms this would acquire in a later day. He would certainly not thought at that point that newspapers would use reader generated content to enhance brand engagement and build loyalty.

That is exactly what a Chennai based free-to-distribute Tabloid Ergo is seeking to do. Ergo has gone one step forward in reserving a space every single day for a reader contributed photograph. To be fair, reader contents have adorned the pages of print media for very long, whether it is humour columns such as Life's like that in the Readers Digest or story writing contests.

Playing on the urge to see our work in print, Ergo invites its readers to email pictures shot by them which may interest other readers. The column has been quite a success, and going by the response seen by me, certainly generated a certain sense of loyalty in the readers. Such is the rush to send photos that many of the contributors including yours truly, are yet to see our photos published(At least, I felt I did send a good photo but that is a separate point).

So here's an example of a conventional media(print) using an unconventional mechanism ( emailing of digital photos) for generating competitive advantage via prosumption.

Comments

Sirpy said…
Good one.. But I thought using reader generated media existed long back... For example, The Hindu themselves use photos, submitted by people to explain the state of the city's governance... That is also more or less like your example na...? I am not sure.. Just a clarification... :)
Rajesh Kumar said…
Valid point Sirpy. I mentioned about user generated content being in existence for quite some time now. However, what we are saying that digital enablers such as web, email, digital photos etc have speeded up the things('Web enabled' in the post title seeks to represent this).This new momentum is on both supply and distribution sides. Hope you agree.
BTW, have you seen the Citizen Journalist stuff on CNN IBN?