Essay Usa Today Case Study

The first significant step that USA Today took was changing the paper from a 54-inch to a 50-inch width causing the paper to appear cleaner and read/handle easier (Ferrell and Hartline, 2014, p. 316). By using web-width reduction, newspapers can save significant amounts of money by making everything appear narrower rather than eliminating any contents (Astor, 1996). In order to be different, USA Today when against an extremely cherished practice and offered space on

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

As the demand for information became higher in the 1700’s, competition between newspapers ensued mainly because of opposing opinions, the reputation of the editorial staff, and their access to credible information. In the early onset of the American Press, newspapers were geared towards the elite members of society, as they were educated and had the means to buy the newspaper weekly. Over time the paper became more widely available and literacy was sky rocketing, resulting in the need to appeal to multiple audiences. The early Colonial Press only consisted of weekly papers, as dailies were not introduced until later on in the 17th century.

The central issue made reference to in the documentary is the uncertain future of the Times. Other types of media such as Twitter and the internet are causing the Times to appear obsolete. This is evident in that the company’s stock value is the lowest it has been in over 8 years. Additionally, the documentary referenced the fact that the Times is having to lay off a hundred people through a buyout program because of budget issues. This problem is all too familiar in the U.S. economy. It also illustrates the fact that even huge corporations are not immune to the economic distress in the United States.

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.

There are a number of opportunities and challenges in today’s economy, that has an affect and still is affecting USA Today. Marketers are no longer able to control and manipulate their customers as they once did in the past. USA today is one of the largest print newspapers read, however, their is a decline in of printed readerships (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014).

USA Today strives to market a newspaper high, in form utility with attributes and features such as sports, travel, and event sections meeting the needs and want of the reader (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). With 24-hour access to online news feeds their news is available at any time, the consumer wants (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). USA Today made newspapers slimmer for the reader to view on airplanes and subways that fit into a briefcase (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Access to e-newspapers through portable devices makes it simple for readers to view today (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Being able to purchase USA Today online through the App with a credit card allows for possession utilization (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). The accessibility and simplicity of using the online experience allow the consumer psychological utility (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014).

USA Today has been able to differentiate itself and stay away from the commodity status of most news sources. Commoditization is to “render a good or service widely available and interchangeable with one provided by another company” (Merriam-Webster, 2017, Para. 1). Commoditization is everywhere and it is basically results of major markets lacking any differentiation between products and services (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). When products and services are similar customers will only care about price. One reason why the USA Today has been able to differentiate itself and stay away from the commodity status of most new sources is because it has the free availability online that makes itself different from competitors, and the list doesn't stop

Their website which is quite similar to the paper version, offers small snippets of video with a lot of information. Introduces on April 17, 1995. This contributed to USA Today´s worldwide distribution. By June 1995 it became a free service that worked with any web browser. There was a trend shift in the early 90s toward electronic information, Gannet saw this opportunity to generate revenue from online advertisers. Their nugget size news stories, allows the readers to receive up-to-the-moment news, that consist of colourful visuals and crisp

Another key way the paper differentiated itself, its paper size. USA Today changed their paper size from 54-inch width to 50-inch width.

With rise of CNN, the first 24 Hour News, in the early 1980s continued practice of promotion journalism. But soon

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 And it achieved rapid success due its innovative format. Now USA Today worth $4.7 billion and Gannett is a global information juggernaut that publishes 82 daily and 700 nondaily newspapers and affiliated websites, together with 23 broadcast television stations in operations reaching 18.2% of the U.S. population. The case provides an overview of Gannett 's strategic marketing approach and its continuous innovations due to changes in the market. Even though USA Today is a national newspaper, it is written in shorter piece and sprinkled with eye catching, colorful photos, charts, and graphs, which are never considered by any other media source and it makes the USA Today’s content refreshing and more engaging than other papers. Due to these reasons, the USA Today’s circulation grew suddenly from roughly 350,000 in 1982 to nearly 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 one of the top sites for news and information.

The rapid expansion of the Internet has brought rise to online social media mechanisms such as user generated content systems. Many traditional media companies are struggling to transition from print to online mediums. One of the challenges is that building a sustainable online news model requires a significant investment in time, resources, and funding. One example of a traditional media company that has succeeded in this transition by focusing on electronic viewing through high-quality product design, is the Washington Post. Initially the Washington Post experienced annual losses of over $100 million to build out its web infrastructure in the late 1990s (Busswood, 2010). Now, through the global reach of the Internet, over 83% of the Washington Post readers come from national and international markets (Kuttner, 2007). This is significant given that a majority of its traditional print readers were primarily within a local geographic area. Many print media companies are scrambling to transition from print to online news models in a desperate attempt to sustain their businesses. However, they lack the time, resources, and funding to replicate on the success of the Washington Post through

More community news publications have the ability to take advantage of the additional capabilities of the web for telling stories as a manner of drawing a new and different audience to supplement existing print subscribers. The boundaries between print, broadcast, and online journalism erode online, and the audience appropriated a more

USA Today achieved rapid success due to its innovative format. No other media source had considered a national newspaper written in shorter pieces and sprinkled with eye-catching, colorful photos, graphs and charts. Readers found USA Today’s refreshing and more engaging than other papers.