20810 - PUBLISHING, AUDIENCES AND PLATFORMS

Content industries are undergoing structural changes driven by both technological innovations and customer behaviors. This course will provide an overview of the transformations taking place in content and media industries and will focus in particular on the specificities of book publishing, news, games, and their interplay with advertisers, with the goal of both getting a hands-on perspective on specific competitive environments and seeing how similar challenges are addressed differently across increasingly converging competitive spaces. Legacy organizations, platforms, new players, will be critically examined, addressing the conditions for the economic viability of different business models. Through this course, students will • analyze digitalization as a context for content industries transformation and the implications of interplatform competition in changing boundaries of firms and the competitive environment for players in the content sectors; • examine the different roles of citizens, the public, and consumers in content access, use, diffusion, and co-creation; • analyze the evolution of offering configuration and changes in the value appropriation processes By the end of the course, students will be able to • understand the specificities of book, news, games, and advertising industries, how value is appropriated and is affected by digitalization and platforms • apply the concepts examined in class to specific field projects

The course is logically divided into the following parts:

- the creation of a technology-driven converging competitive space and a platform-driven economy. This part will focus on platforms as disruptors, it will look at the interplatform competition and the evolution of the sources of competitive advantage in content industries. It will also address the challenges to society at large associated with their pervasiveness, size, and aggressive growth strategies;  

- the analysis of the challenges and specificities of the book publishing industry. It is the oldest content industry, critical for knowledge diffusing and ideas certification, which apparently has been marginally hit by digitalization (is this so?). This section will provide opportunities to reflect on legacy media strategies to protect a competitive environment, on the importance of niches, and on substitution and complementarity among content industries. A comparison with the evolution of digital-only content sectors (games and apps) will trigger reflections on different value propositions.

- managerial headaches in the news and advertising sectors. This section will examine issues of customer engagement, taking into consideration the importance of digital platforms in controlling the digital advertising sector; different value propositions will be taken into consideration, discussing the strategies for reputation enhancement  

- the last section will wrap up the issues emerging throughout the semester by looking at the interplay between data and technology evolution in addressing information and entertainment needs.  

- be informed of the key elements shaping competitive strategies in the sectors considered;

- understand value appropriation mechanisms in content industries;

- frame challenges addressed by companies defining multichannel  and multi engagement strategies.

- address the interplay between content players and platforms; 

- assess the managerial challenges facing platforms, news,  and book publishers in their effort to develop and protect competitive advantage and to create value;

- assess the impact of digital technologies (and more recently algorithms and generative AI)

- propose competitive moves to players in the sectors considered;

- strengthen their leadership and teamwork skills through project work 

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)

The course is highly participative. Students are encouraged to suggest challenges and topics to be introduced in overall discussions.

Guest speakers will provide insights on industry dynamics and challenges in specific segments;

Case studies and incidents have been chosen to exemplify some of the issues addressed in class and to trigger individual students' curiosity;

attending students will be evaluated on a final exam and a group assignment, accounting respectively for 50% of their grade 

non attending students will be evaluated on a final exam  accounting for 100% of their grade 

Attending students

·       Materials available in digital form on Bocconi e-learning platform, Bboard.

·       Specific material on course reserve

Non-Attending students

·       Materials available in digital form on Bocconi e-learning platform, Bboard.

·       Specific material on course reserve