USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy

Executive Summary

USA TODAY is experiencing problems with its organizational structure, with on one side Tom

Curley, that wants to integrate all the company’s departments with his Network Strategy. On the

other side are the Newspaper, Online, and Live departments that see each other as competition

and require significant different operating structures and want to function individually. Because

of the unstable position there are major communication problems and the credibility of the USAT

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name is at risk.

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Despite the network strategy Curley tries to implement, the company will be more efficient and
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consistent when it will keep operating as an ambidextrous organization. The additional

investment in information technology will resolve the further communication and inconsistency
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issues.
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Problem Statement
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USA Today is experiencing multiple problems with its organizational structure. The main
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problems with the current structure and to Curley’s ‘Network strategy’ are:
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- The departments are inconsistent in reporting news, affecting USAT’s credibility

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- Communication problems across the three divisions (Online, Live, Newspaper).

- The company in general, including the senior leadership, seems very resistant to
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significant change, and conflict with the network strategy as a whole.

- Most of the leadership team is not acknowledging the impending digital revolution.

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 Summary of Facts

The ‘Network Strategy” is Tom Curley’s, the CEO, vision to integrate USA Today’s three main

business units; Newspaper, Online, and Live. The Online unit currently operates independently

with their own sources of news content, editing, production and distribution. This could also be

defined as an ambidextrous organization, where a business can almost behave as several separate

companies at once. Curley believes that by integrating the three channels they will be better able

to leverage the USAT brand as well as its news gathering, editing and distributing capabilities

across the channels. As start of the integration USAT spent $80 million on a new online technology

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platform created specifically to transfer information and news.

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He left the ideas for the integration to his senior management. The newspaper department saw
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Online as direct competition, and they did not want to spend more time and recourses than needed.

As consumer demand for Online grew, the competition for resources between the departments
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grew as well.
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Inevitably, there was too much separation between Online and the rest of USAT. Most of the
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company wanted to spin off Online on its own, while Curley wanted to keep Online within the

USAT family. Lorraine Cichowski, the general manager of Online, developed the department as an
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independent business unit. While Curley was trying to maintain and further develop the
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integration, she was skeptical as well of the efforts to integrate Online with the newspaper.
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 A study conducted showed that too much separation existed between Online and the rest of USAT,

there were contradictory news outputs on the channels. This would have had less effect on USAT

as they thought only 10% of the newspaper readers also visited USA TODAY.com, however, the

study concluded that this was a remarkably 50%.

As Curley stated “We’re no longer in the newspaper business. We’re in the news information

space. And we’d better learn to deliver content regardless of form or appliance.” As the online

business is predicted to grow progressively over the coming years, it is increasingly important to

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define and establish a strategy for USAT.

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Analysis of Facts

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Convincing the employees to head down the road of a full integration between the business units
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would take a great deal of convincing. A major barrier is that the attitudes of the Online group as
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well as the newspaper group conflicted with the network strategy as a whole. Despite the fact
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that they both fulfill the same task of “reporting news” the processes involved are drastically

different. The Online team is based on flexible processes with minimum set rules and procedures
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which encourages creativity and generates news quickly, every two minutes content is updated.
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On the other hand, the newspaper requires a more standardized-based management, this makes
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them able to organize the writing and printing with the daily deadline in mind.
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 Because of the different cultures, operations, and leadership both groups did not want to

integrate. The Online group is much younger, fast paced, casually dressed and techno savvy. The

reporters in the newsroom were making no effort to “interface with Online’s operation” and were

ignoring the Online staff. Additionally, the Online group had been fighting to spin off from the

parent group. Both groups have different visions for their units, which conflicts with Curley’s

Network Strategy.

With the newsroom doing little to adopt technology or interface with USAT’s Online operation,

the talent pool was jumping to new online-content ventures.

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The tension between the units caused USAT’s name to be affected. With Online relying on many

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sources outside USAT meant that, on occasion, accuracy slipped below the paper’s standards. The
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Newsroom worried that Online was putting USAT’s credibility at risk.
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Recommendations
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The advantage of the departments working separately is that USAT may have different structures

and control systems, enabling them to have different cultures and patterns of operations.
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Despite the Network strategy that Curley tried to implement. The company will need to keep the
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separate structures, as the different departments require different reporting-structures and will
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therefore need different working environment and management styles. Furthermore, the more

flexible procedures of the Online team will allow them to respond rapid to technological
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changes. As last, it will give them the opportunity to create different incentive schemes in order

to attract and retain the technologically savvy employees they were losing at first.

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 However, this does not mean that the internal competition among units can continue. Despite the

fact that the divisions will operate separately, information technology will need to be used to

communicate news across the channels. Across this information technology the main

communication will be handled, all used media, such as images, and news sources will be

shared. This will keep the standard USAT offers to all its readers stable across all platforms. The

information technology will also give the employees the feeling of interconnection instead of

competition.

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Advances in information technology can enable a firm to access and process more information at

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a lower cost, and increase efficiency while at the meantime work autonomously. By spending an
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additional $10 million to invest in the information technology, the departments can adjust the

technology that would suit both working structures. The technology will be used to set weekly,
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monthly and yearly goals. Furthermore, this is the place where visuals will be uploaded so any
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used graphs or pictures are consistent across the platforms. It will also allow the departments to

communicate which news should be reported when, doing this will prevent that less time-
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sensitive but breaking news is not given away to any competition. This way the technology will

emphasize on the additional value the platforms offer to each other instead of competing, which
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is essentially devaluing the company.

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In order to know which additional features, adjustments, and information processes are needed
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for USAT’s departments, all departments will have weekly meetings until the technology goes

up. After this, monthly meetings with the managers will help any further adjustments and to

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 redefine any problems in the communication processes. Making sure the opinions from the

different departments are heard to create a better understanding and a sense of cohesion

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