Success for the Daily Mail’s online strategy

Last year I started my A2 students on the topic of business strategy by looking at the UK newspaper market. Analysis of their position paints a pretty bleak picture, but the industry has a successful record of innovation, so it was interesting to compare their strategies for survival. A year later, and the success of one paper’s strategy is becoming apparent.

According to the BBC, the Daily Mail has overtaken the New York Times to become the world’s most visited newspaper website. This is an astonishing achievement, in going from nowhere to 45.3 million unique visitors a month in just five years. This seems to vindicate their strategic decision to put significant investment into free online content which then generates income from advertising.

The two other basic strategies employed by other newspaper groups have been to either:

- Go behind an internet ‘paywall’, only offering content to those who pay.

- Steer clear of the web in favour of free, or very cheap print editions to boost circulation (and hence advertising revenue).

The Daily Mail have also got their web offering right in terms of product, as well as price. They’ve clearly developed a very successful style and content that you can read more about in the article.