group assignment
Here you will select and explain the main issue and underlying causes, and how you acquired this information and conclusion. You will review the potential responses (solutions) and recommend one or more, using sound logic and theory.
Sophia Bosoni, Tombra Esite & Junhui Liu
February 6, 2020
Innovation and Organization Transformation
The Boston Globe Organizational Transformations and Innovations
Introduction
The Boston Globe is a company that has been running since 1872. They are experiencing great changes due to changes in the media industry. The owner of The Boston Globe is The Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC. Now, the publisher and the owner of The Boston Globe is John Henry (The Boston Globe). Due to technological innovations, the way and how we inform ourselves is different than the past generations (ex: virtually).
The Boston Globe’s structure, human resources, political and symbolic frames activities are changing so quickly due to the new organization’s transformations and innovations. The structure of the media organizations has changed internally and externally. In relation to human resources we are going to focus on the internal and external changes as a result of the structural change. Politically and symbolically The Boston Globehas transformed, as well. We are going to explore how digital innovation has completely transformed The Boston Globe. This issue is important as The Boston Globe is experiencing many transformations and revenue challenges and they have to survive. Moreover, as a group, we will focus on the organizational transformations in relation to the four frames (structural, human resources, political & symbolic).
Main Issue
· Requires organization response involving key decision makers
Underlying Causes
Activity in the Four Frames
Structural Frame
The Boston Globe had to restructure because of the technological changes in this century. The Boston Globe had to adapt; therefore they created the BostonGlobe.com in 1995. The Boston Globe mains goal is to survive; then it is to deliver news. The Boston Globe went from an all paper organization to an electronic and paper organization (BostonGlobe.com). Due to all the new technological innovation and other online website there has been a need to get an IT department. This IT department takes care of the online website. Moreover, there needs to be a cyber security team because of all the hacking. The Boston Globe needs to protect themselves from the hackers. Additionally, jobs at The Boston Globe have changed greatly. They had to fire Truck drivers to deliver the newspapers and paper boys and hire more tech people.
Human Resources Frame
Political Frame
The owner of The Boston Globe, John Henry, is also the “Red Sox” owner. “In February 2013, the Red Sox owner John Henry assumed ownership, marking a new chapter (The Boston Globe).” This involves means that there is a lot of politics involved as John Henry has biases.
Due to the new structure at The Boston Globe it changes a lot of activity that relates to the political frame. Some of the changes are that there is no more need for different jobs that were very important and essential a couple decades ago, a generation ago. These jobs are the following: truck drivers to deliver the newspapers, paper boys…
Moreover, there is a lot of financial risks. The first goal of The Boston Globe is to survive. Due to all the new innovation and structural changes they have to keep surviving. To make profit The Boston Globe accepts advertisements. Advertising is a house way they can make money. In the last generation they made money on printing the new paper; but today due to the online website (BostonGlobe.com), the company need to adapt to the structural changes. Some financial risks in the future can can include problems with virtual hacking.
Symbolic Frame
The Boston Globe now has shifted to an all paper media organization a couple decades ago to now having a lot of viewers virtually.
Findings
Visual 1
The Boston Globe website provide us information about the audience. In visual 1, “Audience: The Boston Globe (Daily)”, it is mentioned that the “readership” is of 515,105 people (The Boston Globe). Also, they give us information on the gender of the reader: men – 48%, and women – 52% (The Boston Globe). The age demographics are as follows: “18-34 : 20.3%”, “35-49 : 15.6%”, “50-69 : 37.4%”, “70+ : 26.6%” (The Boston Globe). Additionally, the visual states that “40% of daily Globe readers have a net worth over $1 Million (The Boston Globe).”
Visual 2
In the second visual, the audience online is illustrated. The visual demonstrates that monthly they get 37MM pageviews (The Boston Globe). Additionally there have 4.9 MM “unique visitors” (The Boston Globe). The age demographics are the following: “18-34 : 36.7 %”, “35-49 : 26.2%”, “50-69 : 26.5%”, “70+: 10.6%” (The Boston Globe). Additionally, visual 2 states what devices their users are more active on. The results are as follows: “Desktop : 49%”, “Tablet : 14%”, Smartphone : 37%” (The Boston Globe). Moreover, it is mentioned that “34% of the Boston.com readers have a net worth over $1 Million (The Boston Globe).”
Visual 1 & Visual 2 Analysis
There are “515,105” readers of the Boston Globe daily (The Boston Globe, Visual 1). There are “769,065 (The Boston Globe, Visual 3)” readers of the Sunday tangible newspaper of The Boston Globe. There are “37 MM monthly pageviwers (The Boston Globe, Visual 2)” of the BostonGlobe.com. Also “4.9 MM unique visitors (The Boston Globe, Visual 2)” of the BostonGlobe.com. Overall, there are more BostonGlobe.com readers than the tangible Boston Gblobe Newspaper readers.
As seen in visual 1 and 2, there are a lot more virtual readers. The BostonGlobe.com website is greatly used by the readers; much more than the tangible newspaper. There are more “women (52%) than men (48%)” that read the tangible Boston Globe newspaper (The Boston Globe). Also more “women (57%)” than “men (43%)” read the BostonGlobe.com (The Boston Globe).
The readers of the BostonGlobe.com use their “desktop (49%)” more to go on the site. Then they use their “smartphone (37%)”; lastly, there “tablets (14%)” (The Boston Globe). The age demographic that uses the BostonGlobe.com is as we predicted people that are “18-34 years old (36.7%)” (The Boston Globe). And also as we predicted the least group demographics are people “70+ (10.6%)” (The Boston Globe) .
The biggest group demographic that reads the tangible newspaper The Boston Globe are “50-69 years old (37.4%) (The Boston Globe)”. The demographic group that reads the least tangible newspapers are “35-49 years old (15.6%) (The Boston Globe)”. Surprisingly, we thought it would be the “18-34 years old”.
Conclusion
References
Adams, D. (2015, December). Boston Globe Moving Headquarters To Downtown Boston.
Retrieved from https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/12/10/boston-globe-will-move-headquarters-downtown-office-building/rNleXoeiNm9ZNZcaAJnlhM/story.html
The Boston Globe. Advertising Opportunities. The Boston Globe. Retrieved from
https://www.bostonglobemedia.com/bostonglobe
The Boston Globe. (Updated 1 year ago). Company History.Retrieved from
https://customerservice.globe.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020667931-Where-can-I-find-our-the-history-of-The-Boston-Globe-
Appendix
Visual 1
Visual 2
Visual 3