The regional newspaper industry value chain in the digital age

The literature on electronic commerce has bombarded managers with various suggestions and recommendations as how to understand and manage the Internet from the perspective of value chain management (Choudhury and Karahanna, 2008; Stone, 2003). There is however limited academic research on the newspaper industry. Our research sought to answer the question of how the Internet is impacting on the processes of creation, production and distribution in the newspaper industry value chain. In order to answer this question 15 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted at three regional newspapers. The potential operational and strategic benefits from the Internet have been well documented in the literature (Cao and Humphreys, 2002; Anketell, 2003, 2004), but our findings showed that it was met by initial fear and rejection. Newspapers are now starting to use the Internet as an operant resource and are working proactively with consumers to develop various forms of relationship value. We highlight the role of consumers in the creation of news (editorial) content and consumer-driven moves toward a multimedia platform of distribution (including television, online, mobile and printed forms). Insights from the findings are used to generate comparisons between traditional and Internet age newspapers. Finally, the paper concludes by presenting some interesting implications for managers.