Essay about Case Study: Usa Today vs Digital Media

Tom and the USA today team faced a new rapidly developing internet information boom. News was not just becoming accessed more by digital sources, but it was being created or changed into digital sources of information. The internet had created, in the context of the news industry, a disruptive outlet to the newspaper production, sales, and distribution. Whole new infrastructures and business strategy focused on web design, rapid information updates, media outlets, and becoming more up to date with the current technological trends in news, information, and communications. With that, Tom realized that the business expand and use its core competencies in content distribution into three formats, which would allow USA today to impact different market segments with one of three particular product/service changes. With the new divisions, the overall strategy would need to become more ambidextrous to guide and coordinate the branches under a single

USA Today debuted in 1982 as America’s first national general-interest daily newspaper by Allen H. Gannett who was Chairman of Gannett Co., Inc., until 1989. Now this company is worth around $4.7billions and Gannett is a global information juggernaut that publishes 82 daily and 700 nondaily newspapers and affiliated websites, operates 23 broadcast television stations reaching 18.2 percent of the U.S. population. Gannett newspapers including USA Today, have combined circulation of 11.6 million readers every weekday and 12 million readers every Sunday and total online audience is roughly 52 million unique visitors per month. Gannett is currently the largest U.S. newspaper group in terms of circulation.

In the late 1950s and into the 1960s responsibility played a large role in how news was distributed. Three television networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, were among the outlets with formally trained news anchors who brought forth a sense of unity in the country. But, as the years progressed and people began to develop special interests, the ways news was relayed transformed (Turow, 1997, p. 40).

On its debut in 1982, USA Today was reckoned as America’s first National general-interest daily newspaper. Being the global information juggernaut that he is, Gannett managed to identify a gap in the market that he identified as an opportunity for the leading to-be newspaper of the united States. The opportunity was the void gap in the market. Attention to the business traveler was the least attended to

317-318). The major change that USA Today made was USA Today Online (p. 318). This change created both current success and future potential for the company (p. 318). At first a subscription fee was charged for access to USA Today Online, but this subscription fee was quickly dropped allowing free access (p. 318).

Tom Curley, president and CEO of USA Today, realizes that becoming a successful player in the new digital marketplace requires his staffs accept the reality of the digital challenge. However, by February 2000, there is no senior staff members agree Curley’s ideas that transforms USAT from a traditional newspaper business to a news company in the broadest sense. The reason senior staff members disagree is concerning that Online will become a treat to their future.

The internet is our modern source for news media; the importance of the newspaper has not only declined, it is in a sense, obsolete. We now turn to the internet for opinions, news, and entertainment. Even though the way in which we consume information (PBS) has changed, the importance of an unrestricted and watchful media has not changed. (Magleby, Light, & Nemacheck, 2010)

USA Today is a well-known newspaper company who dominates print news in the United States. Currently reaching nearly three million readers, USA Today has climbed their way to the top by evaluating and consistently re-evaluating their strategies to maintain and grow their consumer base, which consists of businessmen, professionals, and politicians (About USA Today). One of their greatest strengths is the wide range of their distribution. USA Today distributes newspapers in all fifty of the United States as well as parts of Canada and the United Kingdom (About USA Today). Their content is styled in an easy to read and understand way, making it more desirable to their readership versus other competitors’ newspapers. The company has established a well-recognized design for their newspaper, making it stand out among its competitors. USA Today is a “go-to” choice for consumers who daily read the newspaper.

The main challenge that news and media outlets face every day is technology. There are several categories under technology that affect how successful an outlet like USA Today can be. As technology advances, we are moving toward electronic versions instead of print because of faster access with lower costs. As it takes less money to start a website to promote information than it does to start a print version of a publication, today there are many more sources that consumers have access

The opportunities and challenges in today’s economy which have affected and are still affecting USA Today is primarily due to our technology-driven society (Ferrell and Hartline, 2014). In a generation where information is easily accessible through a mobile device or PC, few people think about leaving their homes or walking in a store to purchase a newspaper. The innovativeness of social media is a great method of communicating with millennials;however, USA Today must ensure that the stories reported are those that will intrigue this target group. In a 1997 article by Fabian, USA Today is seen as a news source that delivers boring and unentertaining news. The paper is also referred to as a sleeping pill, rather than an informative source of

With all of the technology Americans have, it’s easier than ever to have access to the news. Patrons of the media then have to take the information given to them and decipher what’s accurate, unbiased news and what is news that

USA Today has been able to differentiate itself and stay away from the commodity status of most news sources by being innovators (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). USA Today’s primary focus is to provide and deliver a product that meets the consumers’ needs (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Therefore, their newspaper and e-newspaper provide an intangible service to consumers (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). The ideas presented in the USA Today’s newspaper are issues aimed at promoting a benefit to the reader (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Whether the benefit is increasing awareness of the number of adults that are becoming diabetics or the increase in teen suicides due to bullying (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). The ideas or content marketing provides much value

The media has been a part of the daily life of the American people for the longest time, because of this fact, the media influences the decisions and views of how people should live. One big part of the media that tends to start to develop a sense of how the day-to-day American should live is Disney. Since kids are the main source of Disney’s billion dollar industry children have become an important dimension of the social theory (Giroux 1999: 65). “Within this context, television emerges as a consumer-oriented medium that reflects advertisers’ desire to reach a young, upscale, and primarily White audience” (Goodale1999; Henderson and Baldasty 2003: 100). As a result other races and ethnic groups other than white Americans are often put

Mass media is the methods of communication, including television, radio, magazines, films, internet and newspapers, that have become some of society’s most important agents of socialization. In this paper I will talk about media and its effects on society today, things such as stereotypes the media portrays, the way media illustrates women and what that does to body images of women. I will also be talking about medias effects on teenagers, and sexualization in the media.

The Role of Media in the Society Media has always played a huge role in our society. For a long time media was one of the methods of controlling people and leisure. In ancient times when there was no newspapers and television, people used literature as source of information, some books like "the Iliad", and different stories about great kings, shows those people the information about them. Nowadays media is one of the main part of our lives and our society, because we use word media, to combine all sources of information. Average man is spending 4 hours a day on watching TV and reading newspapers.