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A Case Analysis on "Profits Finally Come to USA Today"

Introduction

USA Today is the largest newspaper in circulation right now in the United States of America averaging over 2.25 million copies sold every weekday. It is the second largest English broadsheet in circulation after The Times of India. It is circulated in 60 countries all over the world. It was founded in 1982 by Allen Neuharth with the goal of providing colorful diagrams, charts, and photographs to readers rather than the old, colorless, wordy, and gray papers of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Currently, USA today is under the Gannett group of companies which also have several other newspaper and media venture. Some of this includes Gannett's 22 television stations which reach to nearly 20 million households nationwide as well Gannett's own internet site and other ventures.

USA Today shares Gannett's vision which is consumers would choose Gannett media for their news and information needs, anytime, anywhere and in any form. They also share the same mission which is to provide must-have news and information on demand across all media, ever mindful of our journalistic responsibilities. With this mission, USA Today tried to develop several innovations in terms of distributing its newspapers to different places. They tried to partner with hotel chains, airports, and airplanes. They were also the first to use satellite transmission to send the final edition of the paper to multiple locations across the country for printing and distribution. Despite their efforts, critics criticize that USA Today tends to make their paper concentrate more on polls rather than the news, something which the management solved already by redesigning their newspaper.

Statement of the Problem

How should USA Today formulate their future plans on different target markets so that they will be able to achieve maximum success in the organization in terms of operations, advertisements, profits, and distribution at the least possible cost and without risking its sister companies?

Objectives:

1. To know the vision and mission of the company

2. To identify the number of people reading newspapers and what age bracket they belong to.

3. To know of the panning process of the company

4. To know how the company distributes and advertises its paper

5. To determine different strategies and target markets to ensure consistent profits

Areas for Consideration:

1. Current number of US readers reading USA Today and compare it with its competitors.

Rank Newspaper Readership Location Owner

1 USA Today 7,080,055 McLean, VA Gannett Company, Inc.

2 Wall Street Journal 5,147,255 New York, NY Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

3 New York Times 5,043,815 New York, NY The New York Times Company

4 New York Daily News 2,650,955 New York, NY Daily News, L.P.

5 Los Angeles Times 2,392,096 Los Angeles, CA Tribune Publishing

6 New York Post 2,054,419 New York, NY News Corporation

7 Chicago Tribune 1,858,767 Chicago, IL Tribune Publishing

8 Washington Post 1,817,325 Washington, DC Washington Post Company

9 Newsday 1,618,362 Melville, NY Tribune Publishing

10 Chicago Sun-Times 1,426,558 Chicago, IL Hollinger International Inc.

2. .Current number of students, adults, and other sectors of society reading newspapers. (see attached article)

3. Their unique type of distributing newspapers which is more costly.

4. Their annual revenues to see how they allocate their resources.(attached at the back)

5. Where should they focus their investments? Since their markets are widely stretched and they have no specific target.

6. What were there strategies in terms of planning and distribution?

Note: attached are only portions of the whole report since it is very long

SWOT Analysis:

Note: they and their all refer to USA Today

Strengths:

1. The brand name USA Today because it is the top newspaper in circulation in the United States today

2. USA Today is an innovating company. In line with its desire to become a unique newspaper, it continuously finds ways to improve the appearance and the presentation of news in its paper.

3. Credibility is also one of its strength. Since USA Today wants to make sure that its readers read only the truth, it makes an apology whenever there are mistakes in its publications

4. Having a variety of means to disseminate information, e.g. through newspaper and the internet provides people alternatives on viewing the current news.

5. It is also distributed to a lot of different places, which makes people read it more

Weaknesses:

1. USA Today has a limited target market segment. The way the newspaper f USA Today is laid out, only professionals and businessmen will have the time to read and understand it.

2. USA Today has a weak editorial process which made errata happen a lot.

3. USA Today is considered on of the worst media outlets according to Mondo Times mainly because of its becoming a "fast food" type of news.

4. USA Today also spends a lot of money to reach out to distributors due to lack of advertisements.

5. There is also a tendency for Gannett to rely more on USA Today and sacrifice its other newspaper company (like what happened in the case study)

Opportunities:

1. Concentrate on advertisements so that it can reach out to potential