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The New York Times Electronic Media company business case done by
Harvard Business School is a popular case for examining issues related
to Internet media. The "A" case, number 9-897-051 was written in 1997
by Jeffrey Rayport, then updated in early 1998 with the "B" case.
The core problem for the New York Times is: should the company develop
a single website or a portfolio of websites? There are a host of
tactical advertising and pricing problems that go along with it,
including:
· how should customers be segmented?
· what information has highest value?
· why are newspapers (with extremely high content) performing so
poorly in attracting advertising on the Internet?
There is apparently little available on the case itself, though the
following Google search strategy will reveal that it's used in a
number of business school cases:
"New York Times Electronic Media" + "case study"
However, because the New York Times has been aggressive about
developing its electronic media, there are some excellent articles on
the Internet describing developments over the past 5 years.
Arete did an analysis of "On-line services and data protection" for
the Commission of the European Union (1997). On pages 96-104 it
outlines a number of business issues that the NY Times dealt with in
establishing its website. This is a large Adobe Acrobat file and is
especially useful in comparing a number of media efforts. You can
jump directly to page 96 to see the NY Times section:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/dataprot/studies/serven.pdf
At the advertising level, some of the issues facing the company are
highlighted in program outline for the Newspaper Association of
America's 1997 conference involving NY Times staff:
http://www.naa.org/presstime/97mark/wednesday.html
The Newspaper Association of America continues to track issues with
digital media in its DigitalEdge.com website, which focuses on
tactical issues of new media and would be helpful in providing
perspectives on this case:
http://www.digitaledge.org/index.html
As the NY Times has worked its way through marketing issues for its
on-line site, they've researched some issues in detail, including the
impact of political ads. In the 1998 gubernatorial race for New York
State, they examined the impact of negative political ads and found
that they work. The story is reported by ZDNet:
"Study: Negative political banners work" (Feb. 3, 1999)
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-513609.html?legacy=zdnn
SOME ALTERNATE SEARCHES
A broader search strategy simply for "New York Times Electronic Media"
yields lots of web links, including a description of the company's
properties; management; and new efforts.
This E-commerce Times article describes the formation of the
consolidated businesses; their revenues; and how the unit may be
positioned for the future:
"New York Times Puts Internet Businesses Together" (May 27, 1999)
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/449.html
Citysites, created with an entertainment focus based on large cities,
have been popular electronic media properties. This TechWeb article
describes the NY Times move in that market:
"Times Unveils Big Apple Directory" (June 16, 1998)
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980615S0021
But several focused search strategies for New York Times Electronic
Media – particularly with "advertising" and "travel' – reveal
interesting information.
This 1999 World Electronic Printing Conference news summary has a NY
Times advertising executive describe how the website was able to use
its size in segmentation:
"Beyond the Printed Word" (Oct. 14-15, 1999)
http://www.wan-press.org/ce/previous/1999/beyond.99/
This Information Week article (Mar. 15, 1999) titled "Web Data –
Tapping the Pipeline" provides yet another example of how the on-line
focus allowed the Times to learn more about what works in customer
targeting:
http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~dbms/Data/Papers-Other/Web/webAnalyze.html
Google search strategy:
"New York Times Electronic Media"
"New York Times Electronic Media" + "case study"
"New York Times Electronic Media" + advertising (or travel)
"New York Times" + "9-897-051"
The nice part about the case is that it's so fresh, even 5 years after
it was written. It also illustrates decision-making problems in an
area where little hard data is available. Good luck with it!
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA |
