A plan for a US newspaper industry counterattack against disruptive innovators

Abstract

Purpose

Firms offering a variety of disruptive innovations – for example, Craigslist.com – are successfully undercutting the traditional newspaper business model; this paper aims to describe a unique mode of counterattack.

Design/methodology/approach

The American Press Institute (API) recognized that the transformation taking place in the newspaper industry was a textbook example of disruptive innovation, as described by strategist Clayton Christensen. Working with Christensen and his colleagues at the consulting firm Innosight, API developed a counter‐offensive program customized to the issues and changes facing newspaper companies.

Findings

The paper finds that the Newspaper Next Game Plan is essentially a strategic framework designed to enable newspaper organizations to structure and prioritize their approach to both the core business and the disruptive innovation opportunities that will drive long‐term success and growth.

Practical implications

API's newspaper‐centric version of the innovation methodology focuses on researching the needs, that is, the “jobs to be done,” of discrete sets of non‐users of the core products.

Originality/value

The paper offers a helpful guide for any industry beset by disruptive innovation. For the newspaper industry there is a radical lesson: serving non‐readers will require newspapers to build audiences by fulfilling “jobs to be done” that go beyond the core function of reporting the news.

Citation

Sterling, J. (2008), "A plan for a US newspaper industry counterattack against disruptive innovators", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 20-26. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878570810840652