Newspaper Industry Analysis

External Environment for Newspaper Industry

PRIYA BAHL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction 3

2. External environment for the newspaper industry 3

2.1 Macro environment 3

2.1.1 Political 3

2.1.2 Economic 4

2.1.3 Sociocultural 4

2.1.4 Technology 4

2.2 Industry environment 5

2.2.1 Bargaining power of Suppliers 5

2.2.2 Bargaining power of Buyers 6

2.2.3 Threat of entrants 6

2.2.4 Threat of substitutes 6

2.2.5 Industry rivalry 7

3. Industry’s prospects for the future 7

4. Recommendations & Conclusion 7

5. List of references 9

1. Introduction

Over the past decade the newspaper industry in the US and UK has experienced several pressures from various areas and continues to keep changing at a fast pace. In the past 1 year, seven major US newspaper chains have declared bankruptcy and major city papers have shutdown (Kirchhoff, 2009). The US newspaper industry is going through the worst financial crisis with advertising revenues declining, readership habits changing and consumers turning to new free media for the latest.

The purpose of this report is to assess the external environment for the newspaper industry, to evaluate its future and also recommend some measures to save this industry from declining. Causes for concern are related to significant technological shifts and changes in society that are disrupting the established business models for the industry.

2. External environment for the newspaper industry

The industry environment consists of several factors that affect its stability and growth. These environmental influences can be broadly classified into external and internal. External environment are factors that affect the industry beyond its own control and management. The External environment can be further classified into macro environment and the micro environment or industry environment (Grant, 2008).

2. 1 Macro environment

Using PEST analysis, we can further study to see how the forces outside the industry have...