USA Today: Commodity Paper

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. (n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2013, from U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission: http://www.cftc.gov/index.htm

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

Today, most people purchase health care insurance through their employers. Since the rise of the Obamacare and other global insurance companies have made their way to the market people are now choosing individual insurance company. Some insurance companies may offer individual or family policies or even student policies, but finding the best policies and provider depends on how well the marketers use the marketing strategies as well as the marketing mix. Cigna is a medical group which was started back in 1968 by nine internal medicine physician in a small office. “Now 38 years later, this medical group has grown from one

Banana is a commodity that is widely used worldwide. Bananas are neither too extravagant, nor too expensive meaning that anyone and any level of socio-economic status can purchase them, from the very poor to the very wealthy. Bananas can be found at any brand name store, farmers market, or flea market. Bananas are commodities that are highly valued, traded, and desired. The success of the banana can be attributed to the fact that it can be grown and harvested all year long in different parts of the world. The success lies in the mass production, distribution and consumption of these goods. However, there is an ugly reality people are exploited, countries and people are complete dependent economically on bananas, and countries and terrain are destroyed by those corporations that benefit the most from the distribution of bananas.

Regarding their promotional efforts, after ensuring the success of USA today on a State scale, they aimed at increasing the awareness scope of USA today not only on a National level, but on an international level as well. They introduced the Buscapade to increase awareness in other states, while the Jetcapade was introduced to increase awareness internationally. Both approaches were the start of profitability for USA today, where readership rates increased as well as awareness on both a national and international level. One of their most successful promotional efforts was blue chip circulation, which not only reaped profits from hotels, airlines and restaurants, but ensured exposure to a greater part of the target market and a raise in the level of awareness. Another move was advertising at the front page. Since its start, USA Today was based on untraditional aspects. Although criticized by many, it nonetheless appealed to its target market that continued to grow. Advertising on the fist page, although sacredly non-valued, and could have imposed a threat on the paper; sabotaging its image of credibility and consistency. Yet again, it

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

“The downside of it is that it creates a much greater demand on the news consumer to figure out what’s legitimate and what isn’t,” Wallace said. “Some websites are serious and have a lot of editorial rigor that goes into it … and some are the infamous guy in his pajamas working out of his mom’s basement.”

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.

1. What are the changes that the newspaper industry is going through? Where do you think the “technology” of news on paper is in its lifecycle? Where is it likely headed?

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.

This journal article talks about how email, social media, and other technologies has made communication easier online.

Social media has transformed the way that news is gathered and distributed. Social media users seek the news through social media sites; for example, 64% of the U.S. Adults use Facebook and about half of those users get news from Facebook. The users of social media also diffuse the news and participate in news circulation by sharing news stories, images, videos, and discussions posts about a news or event, nearly 46% of social network site users have discussed a news issue (Anderson & Caumont, 2014). Furthermore, social media sites have increased the accessibility to news and now 62% of U.S. adults, which is about 6-in-10 Americans, get news from social media. There are varieties of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube,

Visually looking at the two different covers, the amount of space given to the 2-3 major stories was about the same. In both, the biggest space was taken by the pictures. In the NYT, an image of stalled cars on the highway in Atlanta took the biggest space and the next biggest was an image of two children crying with a chard car behind them. In the WSJ, there was a collection of charts that displayed data about the stock market and another of stranded people sleeping in a store in Atlanta. Both of the newspaper share this trait, the most of space going to the pictures. Another similarity would be that the written articles shared length, for example in the NYT the story of obesity and Russian missile test were about the same and in the WSJ the articles of Reid and movie productions were also about the same.

The internet and social networking sites have given traditional media outlets an audience beyond their once limited geographies.  For example, take the Boston Globe.