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1.

What opportunities in the marketing environment did Gannett seize in launching


USA Today? How did the company learn about and respond to these opportunities?
Gannett noticed two trends or opportunities in the reading public and took advantage of
those trends. The first one is the increasingly short attention span among a generation nurtured
on television, the second is the growing hunger for more information. The newspapers primary
mission was to provide more news to their readers in less time. They targeted the young and
well-educated because he noticed that they were busy and care about the news (they targeted non
traditional newspaper readers) unlike their competitors. Typical readers turned out to be
professionals, usually managers, about ! years old, well educated, with an income of about
"#!,!!! a year. USA Today capitali$ed its market opportunities by listening to their readers. They
provided personal level communication, provided news in a clear, upbeat, positive way. They
were also the first color newspaper and captured readers using a T% set like distribution bo&.
They were very uni'ue and out of the bo&. (n addition to this, Gannetts research had shown that
readers get most of their information from such snippets and they were also interested in sports,
movie reviews, and health information so he didnt )ust limit it to traditional news, he added
diverse news about several topics like sports. ( believe that the company knew about
opportunities by closely communicating with their customers and conducting research and
responding to their consumers needs by continuously re innovating and adding values to fit the
readers lifestyle and interests. *or instance, when they knew that a lot of their readers are not
only interested in traditional news, but they are also sports )unkie they added more sub)ects like
sports, lifestyle, and events. They also changed the width, made the paper slimmer and easier to
handle to fit in airplanes and tight spaces. +hen ,- Today at their beginning found the traveling
business people a potential target segment they targeted them by selling to airlines.Then they
also started selling to hotels, and they also started bulk selling (incorporated the blue chip
circulation strategy), on the road in the ,-, on the road internationally as well.
2. How has a continuous strategy of marketing innovation proved successful for USA Today
and USA Today.com? o you believe that USA Today is well positioned for the future?
!"plain
+hile the USA Today has long been criti'ued as a )ournalism lightweight, it has a history
of innovation in adapting to changing audience tastes. .any publishing veterans sniffed at USA
Today in the early days, believing its formula of short stories without )umps, large infographics
and generous use of color represented a dumbing down of news. (t was derided for its
shallowness and labeled /.c0aper1. 2 few years later, nearly all of them had adapted the same
style. 3ver since, USA Today has solidly established itself as a national institution with a
readership of more than 4.5 million. (t was a pioneer in adopting short, choppy articles, get to the
point, casual writing style which the readers admired, and this style was later mimicked by its
competitors. Their main successful innovative strategy here was creating a /national newspaper
written in shorter pieces than the traditional paper and sprinkled with eye-catching, colorful
photos, graphs, and charts. 6esigned to address the needs of a sound-byte generation1
6uring its early growth, the paper didnt recogni$e the potential /business travelers1
segment who were interested in news from back home as well as sports news, so when they
rushed and targeted airlines, the competitors felt threatened and became aware of the changing
reader needs and they started re innovating or benchmarking with ,- Today by adding colors,
shortening stories, and adding new sections.
USA Today being innovative as usual responded to these competitors upgrades in its own
distinctive way. (n terms of product innovation, (t has been able to reengineer itself
)ournalistically by shifting the paper to more serious news oriented product to stay ahead of the
imitative competition, while maintaining its culture of innovation. They also added uni'ue value
added features like the customer hotlines where they could call to get e&pert information on
financial planning. 7ot only this, they also initiated a high school /2cademic 2ll star program1
that was later e&panded to include colleges and universities. +ith the increasing ubi'uity of the
internet, they altered the money section by focusing more on technology issues and look at
business from an e-commerce perspective. (n 8!!o, ,- Today was redesigned to make the paper
easier to read and cleaner in design and to fit in tight spaces. 2s for the promotional innovation
they undertook a /bus capade1 promotional tour in the ,.-. and a /)et capade1 promotional tour
in 9! countries. :oth were very successful and led to publication of ,- Today International.
Garnnetts first strategy to attract or enroll advertisers was a partnership plan, /which provided
si& month of free space to those who purchased si& months of paid advertising1 of course that
was a very smart and appealing offer to many advertisers, they were also fle&ible with the
categories of the advertisements. The company accepts a variety of regional advertising as late as
#;!! pm the day before publication. 2s mentioned earlier the paper incorporated /blue chip
circulation1, bulk selling to hotels and restaurants. They also deviated from the traditional norm
and started offering advertising space on the front page which generated a lot of money and
further success to the company. +hen it comes to the distribution innovation, ,- Todays main
strategy was to deliver fast news. Thats why they added print sites around the world to speed up
distribution. They also added an innovative readership program that allowed ,- Today to be
brought to more than 4#! college campuses. +ith the technological advances, the paper became
easily digitally produced and that gave readers earlier delivery times.
#. What are the $W%& implications for USA Today as it looks toward its future? What
strengths and opportunities can '$( leverage as it looks for a competitive advantage in the
distribution of news and information?
$trengths
4. USA Today is the second largest- selling daily newspaper in the ,nited -tates. (t circulation
had rapidly grew from 9<!,!!! in 4=58 to appro&imately 8.9 million today.
8. USA Today achieved rapid success due it innovative format; written in shorter pieces, using
colorful photos chart and graphs, practical columns and at-a-glance bo&es. The paper
communicates with readers clearly and directly and it also faster to read and easy to handle
thanks to its slimmer pages. Thanks to it late deadlines, the paper delivery more timely news that
other papers.
9. The newspaper has a 4-5!! and 4-=!! /hot-line1 numbers that readers can call for e&pert
information on financial planning, college admissions, minority business development, ta&es and
other sub)ects.
. USA Today offers an online version, ,-2Today.com that is one of the (nternets top sites for
news and information. (t allows readers to receive up-to the moments news with colorful
visuals a crisp audio, weather forecasts, travel information and access to the paper archive from
the >5!s to today information.
<. The paper offers USA Today (nternational, which is available in more than ninety countries in
+estern 3urope, the .iddle 3ast, 7orth 2frica, and 2sia.
#. USA Today is widely distributed via newsstand retailers, large grocery store chains,
bookstores, coin-operated vending machines, and directly to the consumer through home
delivery. ?omplementary distribution occurs primarily in hotels, airport terminals, and
restaurants and at the college campuses and its also available in e-formats from the web page,
mobile phone access and e-mails updates.
@. The company uses innovative promotion activities, like the /:us?apade1 promotional
tour and readerships programs for college students. The company accepts a variety of
regional advertising as late as #;!! pm the day before publication.
5. 2nother point that is a strength for the business but a weakness for the content is the
emphasis on features, sports and entertainment in news coverage. (t is a strength because they
are simple stories )ournalists can do to keep the newspaper and the websites populated with
content, which means they can produce more stories in less time. Aowever, its a weakness
because it underscores a common complaint that USA Today cheapens news coverage which
is negative for the companys image.
Weaknesses
4. The economic crisis affected USA Today to a great e&tent because they reply heavily on
the money that came from advertising. .ost of the advertisers were in the housing, retail and
automobile industries and those industries are facing ma)or troubles on their own so they are
cutting costs including advertising costs. .oreover, the travel industry and hotels have been
affected negatively by the economic crisis, which mean emptier hotels where USA Today
counts half of its circulation in door to door deliveries.
8. USA Today has always been battling the fact that many people thought it was cheap
)ournalism. 2lthough they invested a lot in improving the 'uality of the content.
%pportunities
4. The reason +ashington post had an edge over USA Today in terms of stock prices is
mainly because of +ashington 0osts subsidiary Baplan, which provides mentoring services
and educational services, so may be USA Today should consider diversifying and creating a
similar venture.
8. Theres an opportunity to moneti$e full event calendar listings that newspapers have not
embraced yet. Taking the phonebook model, publications can list every event for free, but
event promoters can pay more for highlights, icons or e&tra lines of te&t.
9. USA Today may have the weight to try something new. (f it partners with 2ma$on.com
and offer to send a free or discounted Bindle to paid subscribers, they could save a large a
mount of printing costs.
&hreats
4. The readers move to viewing content for free online is hurting the massive print ad
revenue of newspapers. 2s a newspapers target demographic grows older, the youth are not
replacing them, instead choosing to fre'uent websites like *acebook or .y-pace instead.
They may get their news from blogs that are not professionally edited and verified like twitter.
8. Cnline advertising competitors such as Google will continue to be threats, as will new
technologies that no one has envisioned yet.
9. The environmental movement and recycling culture have discouraged readers to
subscribe to the newsprint editions, because readers will feel the papers are killing trees.
. The economy is going to be a threat long after it had recovered, because the repercussions
of this downturn will be felt in the financial structure of businesses during recovery
).*ased on USA Today+s !"perience with print and online news, evaluate the long term
potential of printed news and the newspaper publishing industry. o you believe printed
newspapers will continue to survive despite digital competition?
( believe that the trend is moving towards digital and that print is dying due to its high
costs and also the environmental concerns that consumers might have. -o ( would recommend
shifting the bulk of focus on the digital division because it has many smart companies that has
nothing to do with )ournalism but have the potential to be solid profit makers with any renewed
focus. The downside is that print is the real income earner in the company in terms of revenue.
:ut the digital evolution is inevitable and its forcing the advertiser to ad)ust and become used to
a different format. -rint will not be around forever and focusing heavily on digital is risky
but its a needed move.
-ince print is by far the biggest profit maker, ( think USA Today should find new ways of
adding value to print. They might want to insert coupons, giveaways, valuable inserts such as
?6s, posters, pu$$les or anything that could enhance the e&perience of print. :esides that there is
an opportunity for developing for niche markets, including customi$ed maga$ines the readers
can create themselves by selecting the kind of content they want. They could also try /reverse
publishing1 online content. 3ach USA Today news website has a social network where users are
allowed to blog and comment They could have editors select of those posts and publish in their
newspaper or into a new niche maga$ine that can target advertisers looking for a younger
demographic. This gives advertisers e&posure they wouldnt get online, and its ine&pensive to
implement. The tough times in the )ournalism industries are inevitable, it becomes difficult to
fund news. Therefore, newspapers and organizations may seek a completely separate
business to generate profits until the economy booms again. The +ashington post succeeded
in doing that. ,- Today entered a few related business other than )ournalism, but they need to
step outside their comfort $one even further.

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