Introduction

Newspapers have been around for as long as any person alive can remember. They have been the staple of societies with regard to getting the news to their doorstop. This is however a very different society that we live in right now. The people already want their data faster than ever before. It’s one of the habits of individuals today to be impatient and simply inquire from online sites because it is conveniently faster and cheaper for them to get their news from just about anywhere instead of being limited to the familiar spread that they have grown up reading since they were a kid. This is indeed a pivotal time in the field of news delivery. The once-untouchable empire of the newspaper is now on the brink of pseudo-extinction as it continues to be dwarfed by the World Wide Web and its accessibility. One of the things that the newspaper publishers and purists could do is to effectively change different things in the way that they service their customers. Today, the possibilities of being able to reach customers through the traditional printed medium has been challenged by the Internet but there are corresponding responses that the industry can offer in order to wrestle back the readership from the Internet.

Technology To Improve Customer Service         

            The customer service of newspaper companies should be well-equipped to fully take advantage of the technology that is readily available at their fingertips. They should learn to reach their reader base with various types of methods by utilizing the available technology. There are several advances in computing as well as information technology that have offered novel opportunities for research as well as service management. There are various options right now, including Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP systems. The various databases which are associated with them will enable them to incorporate their information in the various databases. There is an existing technology called RFID or Radio Frequency Identification which the companies could use in order to seamlessly connect with their suppliers as well as their customers in order to be able to accurately draft predictions regarding their buying habits and patterns. The aforementioned bane which is the Internet could also be utilized in order to boost and widen the networks of these businesses in order to bridge both readers and the publishers.

            The enterprise systems that are available right now in the market already have Internet connectivity and are on their way to include additional strategic attributes such as supply chain management, enterprise management and customer relationship management or CRM. All of these components combine to a workable platform for reaching customers in the various areas. Having all of these functions available to one will allow newspaper companies to improve their decision-making skills and eventually increase their efficiency as an organization. If these particular tools will be available to the people, they will be able to process the data and corresponding statistics from their clients and process into understandable and interpretable form. (Verma, Fitzsimmons, Heineke & Davis, 2002) This will essentially help them look into the various service management ventures and possibilities that they will be able to implement. By using all of these modules and tools that are at their disposal, companies should be able to completely stave off the alleged demise of the printed news.

 

 

Innovative Marketing

            It is quite expected right now that readership is used to determine the content and the format of newspapers. (Schoenbach & Bergen, 1998) There are those people whose readership are growing such as geographically zoned issues and niche publications. These specific people are increasing even more and the current tabloid publications are evolving into place-specific publications. There is a research group named Claritas, which remarks “We are branding new products because of the market realities.” Their company president, Art Wible sees the opportunity with these types of publications and in 1997, the Newspaper Association of America launched a 3-years, $18 million ad campaign for the reason to do a much better job of being up close and personal to the various advertisers and the readers in general. (Sturm & Consoli, 1997)

            The bottomline is, there are different strategies that are actually working in favor of newspapers and the different types of publication. The trick is to effectively find the niche of these particular publications and invade them.

Mathematical Models in Service Management

            With regard to service management, there are several mathematical models that will be able to help with the decision-making process in the various services. This particular body of knowledge takes advantage of precise calculations in order to accurately forecast particular behaviors of customers. Boudreau, Hopp, McClain, and Thomas (2003) suggest using these types of mathematical methods in order to predict the different behavioral roles in those models.

 

 

Market-oriented business model

            The cliché regarding the customer has resounded for so long ever since the inception of customer service management. In the unending flow of goods and services, the customer is king. Due to this particular fact, there are several market-oriented firms which have identified several strategies in order to efficiently meet the wants and needs of those customers. The assumption of these strategies is that the long-run success greatly depends on strong organization-wide focus on customer wants and needs. The strategy focuses on the firm identifying a particular segment of the market where it wants to focus on and then selects a group of customers who they want to serve and then they effectively strategize with how they are able to give the best possible customer service to those chosen customers. (Kotler, 1991)

Putting the customer first

            The last decade has seen the business environment morph into a very strenuous environment for the daily newspaper as many of them have been able to get a feel for the market and these publications have been able to concentrate on what they have learned regarding the two customer groups that they directly connect with—readers and advertisers. (Beam, 1998) These daily newspapers are often seen battling it out for the various ways that they might meet the standards of the different groups and how they have brought changes in the news-making process.

            Instead of relying purely on the judgments of the journalists on what to put on a particular issue  and what to take out, the newsroom managers of today have found out that being able to pay more attention to the perceived interests of the readers help them more in communicating something to them in the long run. Because of this practice, the reporters and the editors now shape the content of newspapers to adjust to the varying tastes of the public instead of reporting merely on what they want to report about. There have been instances wherein those people who were responsible for the different content included in a newspaper have been known to change the content in order to cater to the tastes of the discriminating audience of these publications. The closer the content conforms to the reader’s interests, the greater the acceptance and the interest by the readers. (Curtin, 1996)

            Cook (2004) mentions that that excellent customer service is imperative in order to be able to hook the consumers in order for them to be able to become patrons of one’s product. If the customer service of a particular company is bad, then it won’t matter if the product is good. The customer service that is offered to people will sometimes make or break the company and the image that it projects onto the public. There will be times that even if the customer service is just horrible, the people still continue to patronize the product. However, this particular case is more than an exception to the rule.

Different strategies to save the industry

            It is important for the managers who are spearheading the different initiatives of the paper to consider several issues regarding the business. One of the most important responsibilities that a manager needs to get a solid grasp of is forecasting.

            The act of business forecasting is the process wherein the study of historical performance is implemented for the purpose of using the knowledge gained to project future business conditions so that decisions can be made today that will aid in the achievement of established goals.   Business Forecasting allows the baseline numbers to be adjusted with the addition of business knowledge. The rationale of business forecasting is to build up a reliable and consistent view of the future that can be used for supply chain or sales and operations planning purposes. In order to be accurate, forecasting should rely and begin with a statistical effort in order to make use of the mathematical models.   

            The failure of common business forecasting practices has never been more pronounced than in the past year. Ironically, senior management is largely responsible for the common failures of forecasting.  Various studies highlight some of the dilemmas which are prevalent to forecasting practices in many companies. Forecasts work by predicting isolated predetermined bits of factual information in order to achieve the type of precision that it has. Eventually, these types of forecasts may not be as accurate as there are different filters that might mislead analysts with regard to the interpretation of the data. Nevertheless, forecasting is able to help organizations with how they make decisions in an improved manner.   

            Forecasting can be more accurately implemented if the executives are up to it. What the top-level people in the organization should acknowledge is that forecasting is not designed for clairvoyance but for arriving at the optimal decision. It should follow as well that uncertainty should be the driving force in the act of forecasting and that is should essentially be measured at each level of forecasting. This approach also brings about a map of the future which provides strategic insight, contingency preparation, and alignment among decision makers. The rewards for adopting this approach can be incredible especially when applied to the newspaper industry. 

 Utilizing the Six Sigma Approach to improve operations

            When it comes to the various processes that newspaper firms could implement in order to streamline their approach to the business, it would be best if they employ a tried and tested approach which is the Six Sigma approach. In this particular approach the firm that uses this method will be able to eliminate unwanted defects in manufacturing and business processes in a company. Since the industry of the printed newspaper is in the business of manufacturing, it would be able to narrow down any particular stimuli that causes customer dissatisfaction. The different processes are as follows:

(1) Forecasting/Planning. This determines the shape of future strategies which according to the newspaper firms, addresses three important questions: a) Where is the company now in terms of its vision and mission? b) Where does it want to be as part of its future corporate plans? C) How is the company in terms of achieving set aims based upon determined forecasts?

(2)   Organization. This pertains to managerial tasks that aim at “maximizing business processes with a concentration on effectiveness and efficiency” (George, 2003).

(3)   Motivation. It has many aspects both intrinsic and extrinsic. (George, 2003).

(4)   Control. This takes care of ensuring constant feedback from each stage of the business processes which is aimed at “checking quality and measuring performance indicators; monitoring system that allows for an increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of organizational activity” (George, 2003).

(5)   Coordination. This takes into consideration the analysis of any “deviations of business processes and updating of the current plans in a holistic manner based on feedback (George, 2003).

(6)   Communication. This is said to be the “link and the lifeblood corporate activity and its effectiveness is measured within the context of the five other functions” (George, 2003).

The aforementioned activities are measures that will be set to ensure that the six sigmas are fully utilized and implemented. In doing this, the goals and objectives of organizations will be achieved in a more systematic and standardized manner wherein the methods, measures and strategies are determinable and can be modified that can fit to the demands of the markets and their customers.

Conclusion

            The newspaper industry has not yet succumbed to the Internet and so far there is still a fighting chance that they are still able to continue their operations irregardless of the availability of the same service online. This is what the industry should leverage on—the people’s need and longing to have something tangible that they can hold onto without even plugging anything in the electric socket. The various approaches that have been mentioned here will be what will make the industry even more fortified and stronger in the coming years ahead while it faces the online challenge head on.