Media Industries and Audiences: New York Times Co - Case Study Example

Media industries and Audiences-New York Times Co. Name University Affiliation Executive summary This paper is all about a US-based multi-media company known as New York Times. The paper shows a brief introduction, which contain the location of the company and the some history of the company. The paper shows the structure of this company, which has leadership hierarchy in its management. The paper discusses the business environment of this company, which includes the market conditions, the financial performance and the description of the diversification of the company. Later on, the products traded by this company will be shown and the strategies which the company uses to sustain itself in business. Lastly, there is a SWOT analysis of the company. Introduction The New York Times Company is one of the renowned multimedia Company all over the world; it is a US based company having its headquarters in the New York City. This Company came into existence in the year 1851, thus, it has been in business for more than one and half centuries. It just started as a small Company that served the New York City customers and the neighboring regions, with time; it expanded its operations to other parts of the US (Joseph T, 2011). Throughout its evolution, this company has realized many successes and encountered many challenges as well. Its long term in business has enabled it to have vast experience and more strategies to survive especially in these current competitive times. New York Times Company has diversified its business operations now to other parts of the world. Nowadays, this company distributes newspapers in all 50 states of the United State. Outside US, it carries its business in countries like UK, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Hong Kong, Malaysia Singapore etc. Therefore, it is one of the most diversified multimedia companies globally. In fact, the records reveal that it had more than 7,665 employees and 820,000 readers in 2009 readers who had subscribed for its print edition for a period of two years. Since this is a growing Company, it may mean that even today the company has grown even further and it is expected to expand to those markets that it has not reached (Joseph T, 2011). This paper focuses on the analysis of the operation of this company. It will show the products in which it operates in, the structures of the company, the strategies its normally use in order to survive in business and later on the SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis is the view of the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and the threats this company is facing. New York Times Company structure Like any other company, New York Times has a company structure that resembles other companies. Since it is a corporation, it has a core purpose and principles, which guides it in its operation (nytco.com, 2011). The core purpose of this company is enhancing the society through creating, collecting and distributing of quality information, news and entertainment. Its management structure is made of the board of directors, Chief executive officer, chairperson, vice chairperson, compensation committee, nominating and governance committee, audit committee, finance committee and the employees. The roles and responsibilities of these people are stipulated in the company’s articles of association (Joseph T, 2011).The brilliant performance and the long-term operation of this company clearly show as that each individual in this company plays his roles as expected that why it has been able to compete effectively with other companies. New York Times company products As mentioned earlier, New York Times is a multinational corporation that operations its business as a multimedia news and information company. Therefore, its mission is to disseminate information in various parts of US and the rest of the world. Its goal is ensuring that individuals get informed on what is going on around them and the rest of the world. This company carries this business through various products (media) it owns. These products are Newspapers, radio, television, magazines, journals, internet and other multimedia that passes information to other people. These products often increase with time due to technological advancement. For examples products that were being traded in the last two or three decades have been improved and other new products have been adopted. Since multimedia business is a wide business, New York Times Corporation carries its business in two segments. These segments are the news media group and about group. News media group is also divided into two branches; we have New York Times media group and New England media group. New York Times media branch deals in the production of papers such as New York Times newspaper, daily and Sunday newspaper, the international Herald Tribune, a daily newspaper, New York Times index (Michael B. Goodman, Peter B. Hirsch, 2010) It also owns New York Times news service division, which does the work of transmission of articles photographs and even graphics. On the other hand, the New England media groups include a daily and Sunday newspaper, Boston Globe, Boston globe.com, Boston.com. These are news and information websites, which this branch operates. The second segment which is About group majorly deals with business websites, it has about three kinds of websites it operates. We have About.com, Consumersearch.com and Caloriecoun.com (Businessweek.com, 2012). About.com deals with searching and delivering content on daily topics. While consumer search.com try to analyze user generated products reviews. Caloriecount.com on the other hand offers the services of weight management tools, the information concerning nutritional management and at the same time, it gives some social support. Therefore, the second segment of this company’s business majorly concentrates in business websites that helps in the promotion of customers business through advertisement. However, the first segment majorly deals with information dissemination thus, the two product segments makes this sector to be more wide, which means New York Times Company, must be a big Company. New York Times Company business environment New York Times Company as seen from the information given is a big and stable company. Its operation is wide, its newspapers are printed in more than 35 sites and they are sold in more than 180 countries across the world excluding US (Businessweek.com, 2012). The number of visitors on NYTimes.com website alone is estimated at 17.9 million per month and Boston.com 5.3 million per month yet this company has other websites. In 2009, this company sold over 66% of the weekday newspaper and 73% of Sunday newspaper (House, 2010). About.com alone write on over 70,000 topics annually hence being in the top ten content sites. This little information on its operations shows that this is a mega company and it still has the hope of expanding its business in future. From its mega operation, we can deduce that the financial base of New York Times Company must be big. From 2009 records, it is revealed that the revenue during the 2009 financial year rated at USD 2,440.44 million; actually, this is huge revenue for one company alone (House, 2010). This revenue was a 16.99% decrease from that of 2008 financial year. The operation profit during 2009 fiscal year rated at USD 64.8million. This company’s net profit was USD 19.89 million the same year. This is a brilliant performance as compared to other companies; this can be attributed to the good management techniques employed by this company management team. Media industry is a wide industry thus many companies have emerged all over the world to trade in this industry. This means that New York Times Company has competitors on the market. Some of these competitors are; Wall street journal, USA Today, Washington post, Gannett Co. News Corporation etc (House, 2010). This means that for this company to maintain good reputation, it must advocate for quality services and smart strategies to combat the competition from its competitors. The goodness with competition within an industry is that it leads to quality and cheap services to consumers. The stiff competition this company has faced from its competitors especially from US-based companies has made it to open up and diversify its business by adopting modern business strategies. Strategies In modern times, any serious firm in business must draw some strategies it will use to operate its business. This is because so many challenges tend to face firms and they ought to be addressed to attain a better performance. One of the strategies New York Times company employees is that it has adopted the strategy of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This means that the company other than doing its business, it is concerned with the welfare of its employees, community, and the environment. In regards to Michael B. Goodman, Peter B. Hirsch (2010). This strategy tends to tie it to the society hence winning the souls of many customers. Secondly, the company is adopting the modern technology in carrying out its business abandoning the olden ways. Thirdly, this company is trying to diversify its operation by making more differentiated products to serve many customers. Lastly, the company is exploring new market away from home especially in Africa and in Asian countries. The SWOT analysis of New York Times Company Strengths New York Times Media Company is a well-known company thus; it has a great image and reputation all over the world. This puts it at the best position to compete with other multinational companies due to what is known as goodwill asset Michael B. Goodman, Peter B. Hirsch (2010).This is an intangible asset which a firm often have due to its dominance over others, thus, the customers easily identifies it and go for its services before considering other firms. Secondly, New York Times Company has a highly skilled editorial staff. Since it is an old company, it has been able to train its staff thoroughly and hire experts to ensure quality work. Thirdly, this company has maintained a long-term cordial relationship with the advertisers hence they have always come for their services a factor which tend to increase the volume of sales (Antiessay.com, 2012). Fourthly, this company has diversified its operation all over the world; this has enabled it to serve more customers in addition to which it has in US. Lastly, this company’s print media has various and diverse sections for example, sports, fashions, cartoon, travel etc. These sections ensure that every customer gets any information he needs. Weaknesses Like other companies, New York Times exhibits some weaknesses. These are; first, its newspaper prices are a bit expensive as compared to other companies’ newspapers. This tends to discourage customers from buying them preferring those of the competitors. Michael B. Goodman, Peter B. Hirsch (2010).Secondly, there is lack of differentiation in its products, this means that this company does not have a variety of products alike other competing companies, thus, this denies it some income. Thirdly, this company does not have a defined target market, thus, it has no specific market but it just carries its business depending on the demand of its products, a factor that appears to be dangerous. Fourthly, in recent years, the company has reported decline in total sales and profit margin, this would easily affects its future operation incase measures are not put in place. Another weakness is that this company does not have well set strategies to counter its challenges. Finally, the financial records show that the company has a huge amount of debt when compared to its equity. Opportunities Some of the opportunities, which this company has, are, first, there is technological advancement hence, the company can easily expand and reach new markets by using the new technologies such as email, face book, twitter, etc, and this will bring more customers. Secondly, the internet use is becoming more popular among the newsreaders (House, J. 2010). Therefore, the cost of printing the papers are cut and the charges of internet users are a bit high hence, more profit would be realized when many people opt to use the internet. Thirdly, since it is a reputable company, it can easily get credit from financial institutions without any problem because it is believed to be creditworthy. Finally, this company can easily attract experts from other competing firms due to its good performance and good financial base. Threats Most threats to this company come from external environment. First, we have the regular economic downturns that often affect the whole world. Secondly, there has been decline in newspaper industry print circulation around the globe due to emergence of other modes of communication (Antiessay.com, 2012). Thirdly, there are many competitors in this industry, as mentioned earlier; this company has competitors such as Wall street journal and Washington post who give even better services. Lastly, we have online advertisement competitors such as Microsoft, Google yahoo etc, this reduces the number of customers who come for its services. Conclusion New York Times Company is one of the oldest multimedia US-based Company. It operates its business around the globe meaning that it is a well-established company. Its products are varied right from the print media, audiovisual and websites where people and other firms carry their advertisement of the products. The financial performance of this company is like those of an average performing company in the current times. Like other companies, New York Times Company has competitors whom it shares with the market in media industry. However, the company has some strength, weaknesses opportunities and even threats which when well managed; probably it will still perform well. References Antiessay.com. (2012). The New York Times SWOT analysis. Retrieved from http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/124894.html Businessweek.com. New York Times Co-a (NYT). Retrieved from http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=NYT: House, J. (2010). The New York Times Company: SWOT analysis and company profile. Retrieved from http://www.docstoc.com/docs/72369135/The-New-York-Times- Company-SWOT-Analysis-and-Company-Profile Nytco.com. The New York Times Company corporate governance principles. Retrieved from http://www.nytco.com/corporate_governance/principles.html Michael B. Goodman, Peter B. Hirsch (2010) Corporate Communication: Strategic Adaptation for Global Practice. Amazon Publishers. New York City. Joseph T (2011) Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. Amazon Publishers New York city. Read More