The New York Times is a tough, vibrant and objective oriented news publishing company that has been in existence since 1896. It has always been successful as the customers had bestowed their ultimate interest in their product due to the high quality of product the company assures. (http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-01-16/the-future-of-the-new-york-times) Despite its overwhelming performance in the past, New York Times has faced serious challenges leaving the public see it as far beaten by other firms in the industry. It is evident that in the recent times the publishing company had a lagging financial performance which is believed to have been caused by(http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-01-16/the-future-of-the-new-york-times) : several journalistic screw ups that increased the levels of mistrust from the customers, profound changes in communications technology since the world is now digitalized and news are better received over Internet, Television and Radios or even live videos, and lastly; the ever changing U.S political climate. (http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-01-16/the-future-of-the-new-york-times) At this point, one is left asking: will New York Times regain its lost glory? Does Arthur Sulzberger have what it takes to get the firm back on truck?
A business enterprise always emphasizes on the need to create value for the customers. The customer is always the essence of the being of any organization. Without the customers, the firm has no purpose and more importantly no goals to attain. (Madu, C. N., & Kuei, C. (2005).) Therefore it is really essential for any goal oriented firm to focus on how to get more customers. As for New York Times, the management is really doing its best but the reality on the ground is almost proving their efforts wrong. The firm is increasingly facing intensive competition from the digital means of communication. In fact most of the young people (under 30) have relatively ditched the paper news for the digitalized forms. Digital communications largely spar the proliferation of alternative sources of news and information. (http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-01-16/the-future-of-the-new-york-times) Most of the previous New York Times customers have drifted to products from digital media leaving the NYT managers with a hard time planning on appropriate future strategies.
Arthur Sulzberger is a quality driven man. Someone who believes that investing in quality journalism has a good long run return. All along the existence of New York Times, they have had this history that they always invest more during tough times. (http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-01-16/the-future-of-the-new-york-times) As I have stated earlier, indeed these are tough times for New York Times since its stock is trading at about 40, down 25% from its high of 53.80 in mid-2002. Sulzberger sees this as a challenge which will only be a stepping stone to the next success. (http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-01-16/the-future-of-the-new-york-times) He had previously rescued NYT from collapse. He even changed the paper itself by spending big money to add new section and profusion of color illustration. His efforts have made the NYT communication to be consistently ranked among the 10most popular internet news sites and the Times Television to be the largest independent producer of documentaries. Sulzberger has been sticking to his long term plan set some time back. (http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-01-16/the-future-of-the-new-york-times)
A company will live or die not just by its product and services but by the quality of its employees. (Vance, D. E. (2009) At a particular moment, Sulzberger had to lay off its Executive Editor Howell Raines due to the huge damage he has caused to the overall reputation the company when cases of fabricated news were realized. (http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-01-16/the-future-of-the-new-york-times)It was right for him to put the right people in the right places and eliminate the wrong people from the organization (Vance, D. E. (2009) Indeed New York Times is now competing well with the digital communication. They have realized what their customers have missed. They have therefore gone beyond newspaper and started eight television stations and 15 more small daily news papers. It is worth noting that the kind of original reporting in which the times specializes is increasingly scarce. Sulzberger’s great hard work in the desire to achieve bore fruits when New York Times won 7 Pulitzer Prizes all in the year 2002.(http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-01-16/the-future-of-the-new-york-times) In conclusion therefore, I strongly believe that New York Times has what it takes to be to have a strong future existence. The task is upon Sulzberger. He needs to increase his focus even more on bringing up better competitive styles. Stuffing committed and competent employees and above all working bringing up more high quality work even through the use of internet in order to win back the interest of his lost target group.
REFERENCE:
Madu, C. N., & Kuei, C. (2005). ERP AND Supply Chain Management. S.l.: Chi Publishers
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-01-16/the-future-of-the-new-york-times
Vance, D. E. (2009). Corporate restructuring: From cause analysis to execution. Berlin: Springer
