Introduction
Founded by Garnett Co. group under Neuharth, USA Today is one of the largest newspaper houses in the United States and has a large market base. The journey of USA Today has been challenging, considering the newspaper industry was and still is one of the most competitive with large firms. The founder of USA Today, Garnett, however, seized the opportunities in the market, such as cultural discrimination, poor black-and-white images, and lack of informational graphics. As a result, the Garnett group ensured the new newspaper became the readers’ favorite through informational graphics, colorized pictures, and popular culture. Despite competition from online news and other firms, the company’s strength is its brand, while the opportunity is the digital platform.
Identifying Opportunities
Colorized Photography
Garnett Co. group conducted extensive market research on the opportunities and gaps in the newspaper industry before creating the USA Today print media. The market research helped the founder, Allen Neuharth, to identify and capitalize on the opportunities. The first opportunity that the Garnett group spotted in the newspaper industry to develop the USA Today newspaper was the absence of colorized photos. Before the inception of USA Today, most newspapers depended on black-and-white photography with images produced in black and white colors (Ferrell & Michael, 2017). As a result, Garnett Co. chairman Allen Neuharth seized the opportunity by developing a newspaper that was able to use colorized photography. By 1985, the new company had already used colorized images to present descriptive news (Ferrell & Michael, 2017). The colored photography made the new newspaper a darling of readers. Therefore, USA Today newspaper was seen as the most authentic and precise, enabling it to build a large customer base in the market.
Cultural Inclusion
The second opportunity Garnett Co. group identified and seized in the newspaper industry was cultural discrimination. The 20th century was marked by intense cultural discrimination as most minority communities faced discrimination in significant sectors of life. The newspaper industry was not spared either, as most newspapers did not generate popular news across all American cultures (South et al., 2022). The biased or rather one-sided journalism made the existing newspapers unpopular among minority communities, such as the Black and Hispanic ethnic groups. Allen Neuharth, therefore, capitalized on the gap and used the opportunity to create a newspaper firm that produced news that cut across all cultures (Ferrell & Michael, 2017). USA Today thus began to include news of popular culture, which all ethnic groups universally accepted.
Reading Culture
The final opportunity in the newspaper industry utilized by the Grnett Co. group to create the USA Today newspaper was the reading culture. At its creation, the larger American population depended on print media for news. Most people were getting information from newspapers, radio, and television. It was, therefore, more accessible for a new firm to enter the market (Piepponen et al., 2022). The Garnett Co. group, thus, capitalized on the opportunity and developed a newspaper that was easier to read and provided informational graphics.
Innovative Strategies for Success
Product Quality and Meeting Consumer Needs
First, USA Today, in its innovative marketing strategy, has focused on its product quality by ensuring the news presented in the newspaper serves the needs of the customer and readers. The newspapers offer quick and short reader news, which makes it easier for the information shared to be seen (Ferrell & Michael, 2017). People seeking information have recently utilized digital media, which provides quick news to save time (Vázquez-Herrero et al., 2022). As a result, in its many strategies, USA Today has embraced that by producing quick reader news with current affairs such as technology, sports, politics, and business, among other popular topics, to match readers’ expectations.
Digital Media Integration
The second innovative strategy employed by USA Today is the use of digital media. The newspaper is utilizing the growing digital media by incorporating online news through internet platforms. The firm has opened a digital branch to serve its online followers. USA Today currently has both online and print news to cater to different categories of customers. Young digital media customers can receive the firm’s news on its online platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, while manual readers are served with print newspaper news. Similarly, the company is conducting promotional activities to popularize and advertise the newspaper beyond American borders (Ferrell & Michael, 2017). The company has undertaken promotional trips to over 50 countries.
With innovative strategies that have seen the company enjoy a competitive advantage in the industry and attain success for over 30 years, USA Today is well-positioned for the future. Even though print media is facing competition from the fast-growing digital media, the company’s dynamic nature and flexibility, especially through its innovative strategies, ensure it is well-positioned for the future.
Strengths, Opportunities, and Challenges
Strengths
One of USA Today’s significant strengths is its brand. The company is one of the most popular in the newspaper industry and is trusted by readers due to the quality of its news, which serves their interests (Ferrell & Michael, 2017). USA Today’s news content is well-researched and up-to-date with current affairs. The company can capitalize on that while building for the future.
Opportunities
The available opportunity for USA Today is the digital platform. With the growth of digital media and the indication of a shift to online news, the company can capitalize on that by using the available digital platforms to pass information (Villi et al., 2022). Apart from print news, the company can use online channels such as Facebook, Twitter, online websites, and other digital mediums to access their customers, especially the youthful population inclined towards digital news.
Weaknesses
The weakness of USA Today is its high price. Generally, newspapers are more expensive, thus making them less economically convenient to many. Since newspapers lose relevance faster due to the dynamic nature of news and information, individuals find it difficult to spend much time on newspapers, only to lose relevance immediately after reading the news (Farrell & Michael, 2017). With the emergence of cheaper digital media, the high is becoming a weakness as many are shifting to online news.
Threats
The threat to USA Today is the digital media, which seems to be killing print news. The quick growth of digital media is threatening the existence and relevance of newspapers as many people are shifting their interest to online news (Masullo et al., 2022). Many individuals now prefer receiving their news and information from online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and digital platforms, whose news is considered faster, cheaper, and more convenient than manual newspaper reading.
The Future of Print News
The survival of print news and newspapers will depend on the strategies of the individual newspaper firm. The growth of digital media requires newspaper and print media firms, in general, to embrace the digital concept in their services by using various online platforms to sell their information. Firms that will fail to embrace and incorporate digital media will not survive. However, newspapers such as USA Today, which are embracing the digitization of news, will survive.
Conclusion
In summary, USA Today, one of the most popular newspapers in America, has succeeded due to its innovative strategies through product quality, extensive research, and the digitization of news. The company’s main strength is its brand, which is popular in the US. In the era of online news, digital media is a significant opportunity for the company to invest and build for the future. Lastly, the ability of individual businesses to adopt news digitalization as a supplement to print news will determine whether print news and newspapers survive.
References
Ferrell O.C & Michael D. H. (2017). Marketing strategy: Text and cases (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Masullo, G. M., Curry, A. L., Whipple, K. N., & Murray, C. (2022). The story behind the story: Examining transparency about the journalistic process and news outlet credibility. Journalism Practice, 16(7), 1287-1305. Web.
Piepponen, A., Ritala, P., Keränen, J., & Maijanen, P. (2022). Digital transformation of the value proposition: A single case study in the media industry. Journal of Business Research, 150, 311-325. Web.
South, T., Smart, B., Roughan, M., & Mitchell, L. (2022). Information flow estimation: a study of news on Twitter. Online Social Networks and Media, 31, 100231. Web.
Vázquez-Herrero, J., Negreira-Rey, M. C., & López-García, X. (2022). Let’s dance to the news! How the news media are adapting to the logic of TikTok. Journalism, 23(8), 1717-1735. Web.
Villi, M., Aharoni, T., Tenenboim-Weinblatt, K., Boczkowski, P. J., Hayashi, K., Mitchelstein, E…. & Kligler-Vilenchik, N. (2022). Taking a break from news: A five-nation study of news avoidance in the digital era. Digital Journalism, 10(1), 148-164. Web.