Analyzing the New York Times
In the 21st century, the development of technology means that several media companies have entered the market. This has increased competition for clients and customers. With the accessibility of the internet, it has become easy for people to access information. No sector has been affected as much as the media industry. Whether in the print media, online news, advertising or broadcasting, there are several companies and organisations that seek to assert their superiority. The increased competition is a major cause of concern. Because of this, companies have resorted to employing mechanisms through which to analyze the external and internal environments in order to make valid decisions. The New York Times is one such company. This paper seeks to analyze the internal and external environment of The New York Times. As a company under print media, it faces a lot of competition.
What is the Company About?
The New York Times is a newspaper in America, which is founded and printed in New York City. Its origin dates back to September 1851 when it was launched. To date, the newspaper has won 114 Pulitzer prizes (The New York Times). This is the highest any newspaper has won, suggesting that the newspaper is a major source of information all over the world. In America, for instance, its print version is the largest in the metropolitan America. In the world, this newspaper is second only to The Wall Street Journal. By circulation, the newspaper is ranked 39th worldwide. Because of the significance and major role it plays in the world, it is important to carry out its external and internal environment analysis (The New York Times).
Internal Environment
Simply, when analyzing the internal aspects of an organisation, one concentrates in the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses. These are the factors that are within the control of the organisation to make an impact. In essence, the management and the officials of the company have direct control and discretion on how to address the issues that arise from these factors. External interference does not fall under this.
Strengths
As a major organisation in the print media in the world, New York Times has a lot of strengths that if well utilized will elevate the organisation to unprecedented heights. The strengths vary from one position to the other, depending on the level at which the management may view them.
The first strength of this newspaper is based on its geographically diverse circulation. Although the paper is produced in the city of New York, it has a worldwide circulation. As already argued, it is ranked 39th throughout the world in terms of circulation. A diverse market implies that the organisation has a large market base. With this, the organisation can increase its sales by increasing production and increasing the supply chain. If this is utilized properly, then the organisation will be in a good position so as to improve its revenue. This is a major strength of the New York Times (Sheehan, 2001).
The impact of technology and digital influence has also played to the advantage of the newspaper. Apart from the print version, the organisation embraces the digital nature of spreading information. With most people accessing the internet, this ensures the newspaper’s coverage will be boosted. The emerging trend is that most people prefer to get their news online. This saves them the time of looking for the newspapers or spending their cash to get one. The fact that the newspaper has embraced online technology means that it can keep its customers satisfied. This will also mean an attraction of other clients (Sheehan, 2001). This is crucial o the organisation.
Weaknesses
Although the New York Times has the above strengths through which it can improve its performance, it equally has weaknesses that make the implementation of the strengths difficult. Although the management has always looked for mechanisms through which to address these issues, there still are major questions as to whether the organisation will overcome them.
The first weakness is as regards to the decline of the print media. Because the organisation predominantly relies on the print version, its sales have shown a tendency of declining. Most people prefer the broadcasting media because they offer both audio and visual services; something the New York Times cannot offer (Grady, 2006). The online system of circulating information is not as rewarding as the print version. When this is the case, the organisation’s revenues have significantly decreased, putting more pressure to managers to devise mechanisms through which the print version sales can be boosted. This is a major weakness the newspaper is facing. The digital platform offers low revenues which are not sufficient to run the organisation.
Low revenues mean that the organisation has depended on external support to sustain operations. In the past few years, the organisation has depended on loans from major banking institutions to sustain its operations. In effect, this has resulted in the company running into high debt burdens in America. With this, operations get paralyzed because of lack of funds at other times. Distribution of the newspapers becomes a problem as the organisation fails to cater for the operations of the company. This also means that the organisation had a bad reputation, limiting the number of clients who depend on the newspaper. If not addressed, this weakness could develop into a major crisis, paralyzing the operations of the organisation.
The cost structure of the organisation has proved to be a major burden to the newspaper. It has been realized by the management that the organisation incurs high costs to supply the newspaper all over the world (Grady, 2006). With poor sales as a result of people embracing the digital platform, the profits have significantly decreased. With the limited revenue, the expenditure of the organisation has shot up, putting the organisation in a mini-crisis. Transportation of the newspapers is mainly by road. The constant increase in fuel costs means that the organisation has to incur extra costs so as to ensure effective distribution of the newspapers is achieved. This has become a major challenge and weakness that the organisation has faced.
Although the newspaper has embraced the digital platform, most of its operations depend on the manual platform. This means the organisation is forced to hire more people to oversee the supply and distribution of the newspaper. This has significantly increased the newspaper’s staff, significantly increasing the staff turnover. With this, most of the organisation’s resources are directed towards paying the employees. This has in effect affected he operations o the organisation.
External Environment
Unlike internal environment of the organisation, external environment refers to the factors that directly affect the business without the organisation having any direct control over them. Such factors are dictated by the outside world and the management o the organisation has no capacity of determining how these factors are shaped. The only remedy an organisation can have is to strategically position itself so as not to be affected by the factors. Like many other organisations, The New York Times is affected by several external factors. The external factors can come in form of opportunities that the organisation has or the threats it faces. The organisation should closely monitor these factors in order to be in a good shape to find possible remedies. Below is the external analysis of the New York Times.
Opportunities
Opportunities always arise from external trends that are positive to the organisation. If the organisation can identify them early enough, then it will be better-suited to design its strategy so as to benefit from such opportunities. The organisation can also use the opportunities to prevent the likely threats.
The first opportunity New York Times has is as regards to the development of technology. With technology, the organisation will have the capacity to carry out most of its operations easily. One weakness the organisation has is its high number of the staff which makes the revenues insufficient to cater for them. To mitigate this, the organisation may decide to embrace technology and replace most of the staff members with efficient technology which can carry out some of the tasks easily and more effectively. If this is the case, the New York Times will be in a better position to elevate its standards. Technology can also be used to market the organisation’s products. Instead of transporting the newspapers from one point, the organisation can have the opportunity to decentralize its operations to other points which are near the clients. This will save the company from the unnecessary costs that it incurs.
Another major opportunity the organisation should use is the IPAD program. Apple has improvised a program through which it will help book sellers and newspapers to prosper their digital format in order to cut costs while at the same time expanding access. This means content providers such as newspapers will have the ability to embrace screens in distributing their information to the public. If well-approached, this opportunity can work wonders to the New York Times.
The development of technology has also ensured the online media is accessible to most people. With the digital format available, people prefer getting news through online mechanisms. Social sites such as facebook also mean that it is easy, quick and cheaper to receive information rather than relying on the traditional mechanisms. The organisation should ensure it embraces this technology and integrate the two systems. Currently, the organisation’s operations depend on the unorthodox mechanisms which have been outdated. The organisation can shift its operations to ensure that it has more online content. The online content will boost its reputation and increase the sales of the organisation. This will put the organisation in a good position.
The organisation has the opportunity to expand its operations internationally. With its large customer base, New York Times is better positioned to increase its sales to people. For instance, the organisation may decide to decentralize its operations. This will help it to regain its lost glory.
Threats
The threats that a company faces in regards to its external environment analysis arise from the negative trends. Failure to act on these threats may negatively affect the operations of the organisation, putting it on a poor position (External Analysis). It is crucial that the organisation identifies the threats early enough to act on them in order to ensure the business is in a better position.
Whereas technology presents the perfect opportunity for the organisation to expand its operations, it also presents the major threat. This threat comes in form of the online sources of news. Over the years, newspaper and other forms of print media have relied on physical distribution to reach the target population. This would present several challenges such as late communication of information. The emergency of the online media means that news or information can be communicated instantly without any delays. With the internet, one is able to monitor everything happening in any part of the world. This means that very few people are interested in newspapers. If the organisation fails to employ adequate mechanisms, then there is a major risk on its sales. The organisation should act on this as soon as possible to ensure that it remains relevant in distribution of data.
The availability of substitutes is another major threat that the organisation faces. Unlike the past, new organisations which specialize in the print media have emerged with a lot of vibrancy (External Analysis). The Wall Street Journal is one of them. Apart from the emerging organisations, there are several sources that can distribute information in a manner that is more reliable than the newspaper. Online platforms and the use of social networking sites is one of the substitutes. The expansion of Aljazeera and CNN are other threats that the New York Times has faced in the recent past. It is important that the organisation employs mechanisms to ensure it remains relevant in distributing information to clients. Without this, the organisation would collapse.
Other influences are politically and economically based. The financial crisis in Europe is a classic example on how the organisation can be affected by the external factors that it cannot control. When the rate of the dollar deteriorated, most organisations (including New York Times) operated on losses. An organisation should ensure it studies the external factors in order to improvise strategies that can promote its survival. Political influence has also acted as a major threat. There are allegations that senior positions in the organisation are awarded depending on the affiliations one has with key politicians. This is a source of concern because the organisation fails to reward employees based on merit. His has also threatened the organisation’s working relationship. For better operations, the organisation should take this into account and employ better mechanisms to avoid political interference.
Conclusion
The above points may shape or kill the operations of New York Times. If the organisation takes mechanisms to work on the strengths, it can improve its performance and subsequently, sales. The weaknesses, on the other hand, should be thoroughly worked on to ensure that everything is addressed to boost the operations of the organisations. As much as the opportunities and the threats cannot be controlled by the organisation, prior preparation and strategizing can ensure that the organisation does not find itself in a difficult position as far as its operations are concerned. The above analysis points out that the organisation is at risk. This is because the weaknesses and the threats outweigh the strengths and opportunities.
References
External Analysis. (2010). Manchester: New York times.
External Influences. (1989). New York: Webster's New World :.
Grady, J. (n2006). System requirements analysis (Second Ed.).
Lloyd, N. (2001). The New York Times: As published by The Gurdian,. London
The New York Times. (2000). New York: New York times.
The New York times page one, 1851-2001: Special commemorative edition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the New York times. (2001). New York: Galahad Books.
