Making Data Elements Productive: Evidence-Based Policy Design for Data Valorization in the Publishing Industry

Against the backdrop of rapidly advancing digital and intelligent technologies, this article argues that data, as a new type of factor of production, has become a core strategic resource for the publishing industry, with direct relevance to efficiency improvement, innovation activation, and the formation of new competitive advantages. The central question addressed is not whether data matters, but how policy design can effectively guide and support the valorization of data elements in publishing in order to enable high-quality industrial development. The study proceeds through a structured, stepwise argument. It first clarifies the connotation and significance of data-element valorization in an industry-specific manner, treating valorization as a process that converts potentially valuable data resources into data capital with economic and social value. This conversion is articulated through a linked sequence of operations that the article explicitly names—collection, storage, processing, analysis, and application—thereby making "valorization" a workflow rather than a slogan. On this conceptual foundation, the research then adopts listed publishing companies as an empirical observation window. By examining typical practices of data-element valorization among these firms, it describes the current stage as a transition from localized exploration toward more systematic advancement, and characterizes that transition with three features: multi-dimensional expansion, scenario-driven development, and gradual evolution. The analysis further specifies where valorization practices have already appeared in publishing operations. It identifies diversified explorations across knowledge services, topic selection and planning, marketing, and operational management, and treats these links as practical "landing zones" in which data capabilities translate into tangible operational change. At the same time, the article emphasizes that current progress remains dominated by spontaneous enterprise-level exploration and is substantially constrained by resource conditions and the degree of inter-organizational coordination. This diagnosis enables the paper's next move: the excavation of policy demand. It argues that clear demands exist in three directions—guiding capability upgrading, promoting systematic application, and driving collaborative innovation—because the gap lies less in isolated technical tools than in the systemic conditions that enable coordinated, scalable deployment. On that basis, the paper evaluates existing policy supply and identifies insufficiencies in system coherence, implementability, and sector specificity. The proposed optimization path therefore reasserts a "holistic and systemic" policy orientation and recommends action from four angles: enhancing publishing enterprises' comprehensive ability in data-element valorization; pushing deeper integration and application of data elements within enterprises; facilitating cross-enterprise and cross-domain data circulation and trading; and improving the foundational rule systems for data-element valorization. The article positions its contribution as enriching valorization research in a specific industrial context while supporting a more accurate understanding of progress and challenges, thereby offering a reference for optimizing support policies and advancing high-quality development in publishing.