what will the museum of the future be like?
Lost revenue from using the web?
So, I am very interested in Creative Art, the Getty's new cross-museum collection online catalogue initiative, and ArtBabble.
It makes sense that there will be a new wave of aggregated museum content, and federated searching, and enriched web content.
But, the question comes up, when I talk about this stuff -- what about the lost revenue from print catalogues?
(fyi, wrote a blog post on the Getty catalogue and the need for aggregating content a few weeks ago on www.smarthistory.org/blog)
Thoughts? It seems to me there is indirect revenue, but difficult to explain to folks looking at the numbers.
It makes sense that there will be a new wave of aggregated museum content, and federated searching, and enriched web content.
But, the question comes up, when I talk about this stuff -- what about the lost revenue from print catalogues?
(fyi, wrote a blog post on the Getty catalogue and the need for aggregating content a few weeks ago on www.smarthistory.org/blog)
Thoughts? It seems to me there is indirect revenue, but difficult to explain to folks looking at the numbers.
Views: 16
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rohn Jay Miller on -
Beth:
I can't speak directly to lost print revenue, but there's a clear case that when people use the Web they use the real world museum more, not less. I've quoted this study in another thread, ""The IMLS National Study on the Use of Libraries, Museums and the Internet," released this past Fall. It can be found at: http://interconnectionsreport.org/ It's a US study of museums and libraries, and there's a fair amount of data about the strong--and positive--relationship between online and real-world museum engagement.
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Permalink Reply by Beth Harris on -
Thanks Rohn! -- and yes, of course, that makes a lot of sense, but having some data to back it up is VERY helpful...
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Permalink Reply by Seb Chan on -
Beth
I think it is important to distinguish revenue from profit, and potentially both from 'delivering the mission'.
Likewise, there will always be a market for 'physical product' - it might just be a bit smaller once the 'casual' purchasers are removed. We've seen this in the music sector - remove the need to buy albums to obtain the songs you want and invariably people will choose just the songs. A smaller passionate group, though, will pay more to get the limited edition vinyl with extra tracks etc.
If (and I doubt this) exhibition catalogues are exceptionally profitable (that is there entire sales revenue exceeds total production costs by say 400% or greater - remember a book in a standard book shop has at least a 50% markup from the distributor, and the distributor takes a further 30%) . . . . and online starts to cannibalise and reduce your market by, lets say half, . . . . then you need to be finding the collectors who will pay twice as much for a limited edition product.
I'd also point to the IMLS study - the revenue might just shift to another channel - physical visits - which in turn allow for other forms of engagement, sales etc . . . . oh and of course, delivering the mission.
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Permalink Reply by Rohn Jay Miller on
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Let me add one point to Seb's note here: museums, by their very nature, claim authority. Authority and trust are words often used in discussing museum missions. Museums are run by experts--art experts, children's museum experts, etc. This "expert" frame of thinking means that museum management can sometimes tend to believe its own opinions and also to resist hard ROI evaluations. It's a challenge.
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Permalink Reply by Beth Harris on
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A challenge indeed!!
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Permalink Reply by Beth Harris on
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Thanks for the response Seb -- and good points! But I am not sure I understand what you are saying in terms of created limited edition products -- a "special" collection catalogue in a limited edition - in case these catalogues are truly generating a profit that would be impacted by more web content?
And yes! delivering the mission -- the EDUCATIONAL mission of the institution. I need to be able to find strategies to educate those who don't have a comfort level with the technology and who are suspicious that there might be reduced revenue -- something esp. frightening right now. It's come up a couple of times now. I suggested that we put our highest quality reproductions on the web for free download, and the reduced revenue specter appeared again -- but I assume those who are paying for rights to reproduce are doing it for commercial purposes, and will need to continue to do so? But I always have teachers in mind. That's my problem! Wouldn't it be good to know you could always go to the museum that had the work to download the best quality reproduction -- instead of a third party. Perhaps I am missing something though?
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Permalink Reply by Luke on -
What if you would just allow everything to be POD (Print on demand) take lessons I learned from the music industry and from working for major retailing brands. There are so many products being sold already in Museum book stores. If you could allow some on demand shopping i.e. Right now you only sell the postcard of select works (Sun flowers, Campbell Soup Tomato, Marylin..etc.) But, actually allow everything to be sold on POD. Its a great way to increase revenue at a small cost. Especially when the printing is being done by a third party. And you start using a great model on the NET which makes people money on the internet. Affeliate sales.
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Permalink Reply by Luke on
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ps there is HUGE revenue opportunities for the museum on the net.... Selling products is only the beginning. PM me if you want to know more. I can't give it all out to the entire public right now.
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Permalink Reply by Amelia Bowan on -
Perhaps museums could offer a service where visitors could select their favourite images online and buy a 'book' of them to have sent by post - much like some of the products photo-sharing websites are offering where you can buy an album of your favourite photos.
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Permalink Reply by Mary Harrsch on -
Amelia, that's a very good idea. If you combine the images with related descriptions, you could allow the visitor to either print a "take away" on demand or create a virtual exhibit catalogue that could be e-mailed to not only the visitor but the visitor's family and friends or embedded in a blog. You could even provide the ability to add accompanying music to create an experience. Smilebox ( http://www.smilebox.com) currently provides an application that does all of these things. A collaboration with them could be worthwhile.
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Permalink Reply by Amelia Bowan on
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Mary I just came across this site through the Natural History Museum in London http://nhm.nmolp.org/creativespaces/ :
Creative Spaces
Inspired by your museum visit?
Save photos of favourite exhibits, find like-minded people, and create your own content at the exciting new site for museum lovers. Creative Spaces connects you with nine UK national museums and galleries, allowing you to explore and comment on collections, upload your own content, and build and share collections with others.
It looks like they are already doing something like this!
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Permalink Reply by Mary Harrsch on
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Amelia, this is a wonderful site. I've bookmarked it so I can go back and create a few notebooks of my own when I get a chance! Thanks so much for sharing!
I was really surprised to see that the National Portrait Gallery in London is participating. Maybe they have changed policies (or some of their policy creating people!) National Portrait Gallery personnel have in the past repeatedly badgered Wikipedia about use of images of paintings in their collection in Wikipedia articles even though here in the US there have been court rulings that two dimensional reproductions of art in the public domain are not copyrightable.
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