Since the evolution of the digital transformation towards the end of the 20th century, the publishing industry has tremendously gone through a paradigm shift. The changes in the tastes of consumers have dictated the manner in which news is consumed and thereby spell a gloomy future for the players in the traditional media. This is mainly informed by the advancements in technology. Alex Springer, a Germany based publishing house is disturbed by this change. It is faced with new challenges of establishing the freshest ways of distribution, monetization and development of its products in the wake of these technological advancements. As a result, the publishing house has reevaluated and adapted its corporate strategy in order to correspond it with the new age effectively ( Picot, 2015).
Alex Springer has therefore resorted to approach the digitization task by coming up with a two pronged strategy of digital transformation process. It started with focusing on organic growth before adapting late acquisition of digital platform. This is mainly aimed at infusing digitalization aspect into its company culture as well as ensuring that the business remains profitable. It therefore reformulated its corporate mission in 2013 to read The Leading Digital Publisher. The company branded its channels of distribution and branded contents thereafter. This new strategy put Alex Springer to reap on the early stage entrepreneurship and investments and increase its revenues through new models of business. These include marketing, classified advertisement and paid content. This was a great success since the company recorded total revenue of $3.9 billion and $625 million EBITDA. This was achieved with 12,800 employees in the year 2013. Beyond, 2014, Alex Springer will continue to apply its strategies in balancing its traditional media with the digital platform ( Brocke & Simons, 2014).
References
Brocke, J. v., & Simons, A. (2014). Enterprise content management in information systems research : foundations, methods and cases. Heidelberg : Springer.
Picot, . (2015). The internationalization of German software-based companies : sustainable growth strategies for small and medium-sized companies. Cham, Switzerland : Springer Science and Business Media.
