Usa Today Case Study

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USA Today has been a widely successful company. When newspapers were the only form of read news, USA Today cornered the market in the national newspaper arena. As the digital age came about, it was time for change. New companies were emerging as leaders in the online news arena, and even established companies were moving towards online news. USA Today had to move in a different direction. They had to deal with staying ahead, or even with the competition.

USA Today, or USTA was launched in 1982. It was the first daily national newspaper, and offered news regarding every state in the nation. It had both weekly and daily newspapers. Though it started out slow, as the reporting quality increased, so did the advertising and revenue.

Values included independence, fairness, accuracy and trust. Loyalty was something that the reporters loved and cherished about the company. But, in the late 1990s, things started to change. Online reporting became popular, and more and more people were going from the daily newspaper to the internet for their breaking news. How was USAT going to handle such a change? They were losing their market share in the daily newspaper sales.

Their response was Online, USTA’s version of online news. They started the Network Strategy. This strategy integrated television, paper and digital news. USAT would create content for television, the paper would deliver content to Online, and then digital images would be sent to the newspaper and video to Online.

Online started as news in which people would pay a monthly fee, this quickly changed into a free paper, with advertising as the main source of revenue. Online started as an operation that was autonomous and independent of the newsroom, its operations and culture....

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...th management to determine whether to spin off or integrate, and make a clear move toward that choice. Whichever the choice, the decision must be made, and management must be aware that regardless of their personal feelings, they must communicate it to everyone in their department.

USAT needs to determine where they are going, and deliver that message to everyone. Management needs to take a lead role in making a decision, and bringing everyone on board with that decision. By communicating the way in which the company is moving, and making everyone’s role clear, USAT can make the transition much clearer and easier for all employees.

Enviably, Curley decided to integrate, and it seems to have been successful. They only had one year where circulation was down. Though people seriously doubted the integration processes, it worked and USAT is still a successful company.

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