The Convergence of Conventional Media and New Technology in the Cases of The New York Times and National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

During the last decade, the fast development of new technologies: the Internet, personal computer, portable electronic device, etc., have powerful influences on people's life especially their consuming behavior. By making consumer's lives easier, technologies also empower them through more choices on merchandise. Meanwhile, new technologies also drive enterprises, particular media companies, to operate with state-of-the-art techniques, physically as well as structurally. This research project studies the convergence of conventional media with new technologies by focusing on the managerial issues with convergence and business strategies that conventional media companies are using. In this project, it will concentrate on the newspaper and television sector of conventional media industry, there are two case studies: The New York Times and National Broadcasting Company (NBC). The research will not only review the strategies that theses two companies are using, but will also compare the similar and different strategic operational approaches between the newspaper and television industries. There has been a paradigm shift in the mass media industry in the past decades. The popularity and advancement in technology including cable television, portable electronic devices, and the Internet has had enormous impacts on the means of transmitting and receiving information in many perspectives. For instance, in the television industry, cable television provides more TV channels to the audience and gives them the autonomy of viewing programs of their favorite. Before the arrival of cable television, there were only a few available TV channels broadcasted to large audiences. This innumerous amount of choice inevitably benefits the audience, but TV networks suffer from it because of the decrease of audience rating. Consequently, the nature of television changed from broadcasting to narrowcasting. Portable electronic devices, like laptop and smartphones, changed the way people communicate with each other. Communication was not limited from person to person, but rather between groups and people. The Internet creates a platform for individuals to share their stories and opinions. These technologies also allow Internet populations across globe to communicate with picture and video rather than voice and text. The enhancement of technology provides a multi-media platform, the Internet, for the distribution channels to deliver content; this growth of new media instigates the convergence between conventional media and new technologies. Having that said, the rise of new technology threatens and challenges the conventional media. This merger between the old and the new will create logistic and managerial issues for conventional media company to cope with. These …