A large regional newspaper publisher in the UK with turnover of around £200M and publishing around 100 print titles and more than 70 websites was facing challenge of declining subscriber base and month on month lower advertising revenues.

Using technology as a key enabler, transform the business from being a print to digital newspaper company and improve the subscriber and advertising revenues to maintain a competitive edge as the preferred regional newspaper across all the titles it operated.

Areas of impact included:

1. Method – Engagement with business leaders to identify their key challenges and key competitors’ (e.g. Google, Facebook, Gumtree, Groupon and AutoTrader to name a few) offerings.

2. Process – Facilitate design of a new operating model for the business on the principle of digital first. Weekly communication with all relevant stakeholders and employees; monthly communication with the supervisory board.

3. Technology – Market research to find most optimum solutions and technology partners to deliver a fully operating new greenfield solution in less than 12 months.

4. Delivery Style – Selected a prime technology partner to reduce IT spend on legacy systems by 40% and these savings were then used to fund the new greenfield digital platform.

Applauded by the executive management team, delivered successfully a fully operational greenfield technology solution to support a proof of concept for a fully first of its kind digital newspaper. Secured positive feedback from the subscribers, local communities, local authorities and businesses resulting in continuous growth in the subscriber base and self-service advertising revenues.

• agile
• Business Case
• digital strategy
• digital transformation
• IT Transformation
• stakeholder management
• Cost Optimization

• Digital Enablement