Amanda Ferguson
Kim Jauch
Case Analysis – The New York Times Paywall
Situation
The New York Times, as well as every other newspaper and magazine around the world, is struggling to find the best way to transition from traditional print to the digital space while still maintaining a profitable business. The current solution for the largest local metropolitan newspaper in the United States is a paywall, which requires readers of online content to pay for a digital subscription in order to have access to the site after a fixed monthly allowance of 20 articles. However, this pay metered method has been tried by the most popular American newspaper website before and the question is whether or not this strategy can help The Times evolve
…show more content…
Paywalls can also increase print subscriptions. For example, some newspapers have offered subscription prices that provide digital-only access for the same or lower than for digital and print in order to increase online revenues, print circulation and thus print ad revenue.
Opportunity is the key word for the newspaper industry right now. According to experts, neither digital advertisement revenues nor paywall subscriptions are the answer. Innovation needs to be present in order to define the future of the industry. For example, some added value needs to be present to merit the payment for content that was previously free or can be found using numerous substitute products free of charge.
Competitive Strengths and Weaknesses
The New York Times has a strong brand presence, name and equity in the United States. According to Michael Hirschorn, contributing editor at the Atlantic, “You really can trace almost any major story these days to something that originally appeared in The Times. The problem is that once it reaches the public, they may not even know it came from The Times.” Readers of The New York Times are extremely loyal as well. A daily issue is priced at $2.50 compared to $2.00 for the Wall Street Journal and $1.00 for USA Today. In addition, within nine months, 390,000 consumers have subscribed to www.nytimes.com for a premium price of approximately $4.00 a week [Table B] and 70% of print subscribers have taken
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
Even though USA Today is a national newspaper, it is written in shorter piece and sprinkled with eye catching, colorful photos, graphs, and charts designed to address the needs of a sound-byte generation, which are never consider by any other media source and it makes the USA Today’s content refreshing and more engaging than other papers. Because of this the USA Today’s circulation grew rapidly from roughly 350,000 in 1982 to approximately 5.9 million daily print and online readers today. When comparing USA Today with other competitors like the Wall Street Journal, which has 2.12 million subscriptions and the New York Times, which has 1.58 million subscriptions, the USA Today remains the number one print newspaper and USAToday.com, is the internet’s top sites for news and
While some may agree that it is not appropriate to keep selling and buying a newspaper every few months, using several different strategies and laying off employees that are essential to the newspaper in order to keep it alive has certainly not work in the past years. The price tag keeps falling every year, while, the amount of money needed to keep publishing daily editions increases. Currently, the newspaper does not have the capacity to investigate and report all the potential news in the City of Philadelphia as the number of staff has immensely decreased in the last several years. Subsequently, there are numerous local business owners in Philadelphia that are fighting to find a solution to the problem. The Philadelphia Inquirer has been in existence for almost185 years. The paper was a key source of news during the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War I and II, shutting down the Inquirer will end a key role in the evolution of the American
Problem Statement: The advent of internet brought about both challenges and opportunities for the newspaper industry. On one hand, it required redesigning a new product suited for online customers and on the other it was an opportunity to reach to 123 million potential customers in this category. Thus to keep up with the pace of emerging digitization in every field, like all newspapers, New York Times also added online reading in their product portfolio. However it only worsened the crisis the newspaper was already going through. The operating profit declined by more than 76% from 234Mn$ in 2010 to a mere 57Mn$ in 2011. The circulations were steadily declining and the new online advertising could not compensate for print advertising
David Swensen and Michael Schmidt propose in “News You Can Endow” a plan to help keep print newspapers afloat in the digital age. Swensen is the chief investment officer for Yale University, where he is also a professor of finance. He is the author of “Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment (2000)” and Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment (2005)” Schmidt is a financial analyst for Yale University.
Recommendation – NYT should continue with its Paywall initiative as upwards of 40% incoming traffic is from other sites i.e. Google, yahoo etc. Internet delivery on mobile devices is also becoming popular. Additionally, lots of users are able to access news content via leaky paywall. This reflects users increasing interest in accessing NYT news content in digital format. Digital edition is in early stages for adoption by end users. New sources and models for revenue generation or sharing are to be discovered and streamlined. Internet will become “platform of choice” for majority of users in near future. New industry needs to continue exploring methods to present news content to user preferred way and adapt to new and different streams of revenue. The digital edition is in its growth phase heading into maturity. There is still potential to increase and development. The data seem to indicate that the New York Times is able to identify those with more willingness to pay and they are getting them to purchase at these increased costs. This
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.
Now, with the advent of the internet greatly transforming the information-gathering sector, the newspaper industry is fighting a tough battle for profitability.
Q4. Briefly identify external factors that have impacted newspaper industry in the past 20 years. How have diversification and differentiation strategies sustained business growth for the HKET group?
This paper aims to answer the question “How can Fairfax continue to grow its news revenue in the digital age?”
The Chronicle Gazette is one of today’s leading newspapers in the United States, with a circulation of 225,000 customers. Over the past few years, it has been facing a steady decline in its customer base and revenues. This is mainly due to the increase of people using the internet as their means of gathering news and information. The
In 1760, The Boston News-Letter was the first newspaper to be continuously published in the United States. A 250-year legacy of printed news could not have lasted if it newspapers didn't not have it uses. Aside from the entertainment value, newspapers exist for the main purpose of bringing news of international, national, and local news to the doorsteps of the people. Without such frequent and stable form of communication, it would be difficult for any nation to call itself a free democracy. Today however, it cannot be expected that newsprint will last forever. Statistical data firmly suggests newspapers around the world are falling both in number and circulation. The past several years have been difficult for newspapers as other news
With the decreasing market, the profitability of newspaper industry is declining. Newspaper revenues came from two sources: advertising and circulation representing approximately 80% and 20% of revenue, respectively. But between 2000 and 2010, annual
Each has been devising ways to deal with the plus points of the other. TV is getting interactive, radio is getting gripping, newspapers and books are trying to get more attractive with the incorporation of visuals and graphics and interactivity to some extent, and all of them together are going online. Adaptability is crucial for existence. The bottom-line is if the print media continues to adapt to the changing media habits of people and corner its target readers well, it will survive. And it ought to do that for its good. Somehow, there is a feeling that even if it fails in that, the power of the written word will always be supreme.
Newspaper Owner 1 is a “diversified media company that generates most of its revenues through newspapers sold around the country and around the world” (pg. 122). Competition for subscribers and advertising revenues