Strategic change for the Guardian - from print to digital

A great example here of a major change in strategic direction. Guardian News & Media has announced a “major transformation programme” to reduce the business’ reliance on print-based publishing and aim to make it a “digital-first” publisher. This is an excellent example to use for students wanting to explain the impact of technological change creating the need for significant shifts in strategy.

Here is a link to an article on PaidContent which describes the new strategy in reasonable detail.

The transformation programme is a signal of a significant commitment to a digital strategy. Investment funds that had previously been allocated to print publishing will now be allocated to digital projects.
Amazingly, in the medium to long-term, the Guardian expects to exit print publishing altogether - although it hasn;t put a time-frame on that change.

It has set itself some stretch objectives in relation to digital revenues. Of the £221 ($355.69) million revenue GNM took in 2009/10, about £37.5 ($60.35) million came from digital. GNM aims to double digital income within five years whilst managing the decline of amounts earned from print.

The Guardian newspaper itself is already well progressed in terms of a migration of readership from print to digital. It currently sells around 250,000 print copies each day, compared with an average of over 2 million unique users to its website each day.