Back in the early days of television broadcasting, there was a view in the BBC that people would not want to watch repeats of programmes. The belief was that he viewers wanted new programmes all of the time and that anything else would bore them. As a result, many programmes were not recorded and, therefore, not archived. The material was lost forever.

Fortunately, it was soon realised that people were quite happy to watch re-runs of popular programmes and that the archive was a great source of extra revenue and savings for the BBC and the other television stations.

Today, there are channels which just play re-runs of popular programmes. Take 'Dave', for example. This channel does nothing but play re-runs of other people's programmes. It's so popular that they have now even launched a new channel called 'Dave Ja Vu (Dave +1 is too boring!) which plays the 'Dave' channel an hour later so that you watch the re-run when it suits. That must make it a 're-re-run' channel.

Thank goodness for digital technology, because it has given our publishing clients an opportunity to create their own repeat business on magazines and books which may have languished in their archives for decades but which still have great value for their customers.

For instance, we have recently digitised the back list of Philip Allan Magazines who produce A-level subject magazines to help students and teachers in subjects ranging from economics to sociology to physics. We digitised their back list of issues going back to the early 1990s, making them available through a web site which allows individuals to 'flip' through an issue on-line and search for related articles across the whole of the back list to which they subscribe.

Teachers buy subscriptions on-line and provide access to their students. It is free to customers who subscribe to the printed magazine.

The beauty of this solution is that it allows customers to get the best of both formats. The printed magazine has all the benefits of convenience that we all enjoy such as being able to read it on the bus, and share it with friends, as well as the option to read it and easily search for any related articles which will help with study and revision for exams.

There is a saying that if you keep a diary, one day it might keep you. Well, most of us don't have diaries which will keep us, but publishers have back lists of content which they can re-use easily to provide more choice and value to their customers. Digital technology breathes life back into these valuable resources and repeat business really does pay off.

Will Hawkins
New Business Director