Many dining room furniture companies are now in a critical period of transformation.
The author believes that there are two types of enterprises that need to be transformed. One is a large-scale head company with a large scale, but the growth is somewhat weak, and it is difficult to get to the next level.
New businesses
Don't look at living a wonderful life for the time being. If the transformation is not effective, it may decline steadily later. After three to five years, the situation may become very bad.
Therefore, companies with a strong sense of crisis are thinking of ways to transform and upgrade, develop new businesses, and adjust business strategies.
Second, small and medium-sized enterprises, regional companies, are facing very high competitive pressure, and their original product advantages and channel advantages are slowly disappearing. What should be done? Still have to find a way to transform.
We found a transformation case from the paper media industry, and it took a long time. After the transformation was successful, some of the experiences and practices are worth learning from home furnishing companies.
Paper media
A common question is that paper media has no future? It does seem to be that the companies that have not survived are facing very severe challenges.
The New York Times, through 7 years of large-scale digital transformation exploration, with a reasonable digital payment strategy, achieved subscription revenue surpassing advertising.
"Financial Times" formulated a five-year digital strategy. Through digital payment strategy and financial professional content development, subscription revenue exceeded advertising revenue. NETELIX shifted from traditional DVD rental business to online paid film and television services, successfully expanding its user base.
Today, we are introducing the "New York Times" to you. This newspaper had to sell its headquarters building to survive its worst. After the digital transformation, its market value has increased by three times.
New York Times
When the time was pushed back to 2019, the US "New York Times" stated that in order to alleviate the shortage of funds, it would sell some floors of its headquarters in Manhattan, New York, in order to raise $225 million to tide over the storm.
According to the agreement, the New York Times can repurchase these floors for $250 million in 10 years (2019). The dining room furniture companies is very concerned about this news.
It can be seen that the situation at that time was very unfavorable. By 2012, Mark Thompson took over as CEO of The New York Times, and he was still in a terrible situation. At that time, the quarterly advertising revenue fell by 9% from the same period last year, and the net income fell by more than 80%. The company announced the stock price. It fell by 22%.
In order to turn losses into profits, Thompson established an independent department responsible for paper printing products and related services. At the same time, the company focused on the digital subscription business. This transformation was a big success.
Data
According to data previously disclosed by the "New York Times", in 2016, the newspaper’s digital media business achieved 500 million US dollars in revenue, and digital advertising revenue achieved growth. Among them, the digital subscription payment business has grown gratifyingly. The business was launched in 2011 and has since grown rapidly.
In February 2019, the "New York Times" announced that it has 4.3 million readers worldwide, of which 3.3 million are paying users. In 2018, the online subscription revenue of the "New York Times" increased by 18% to US$400 million; Advertising revenue also increased by 8.6%, reaching 259 million U.S. dollars, and the performance was gratifying.
The results of digital transformation are still expanding. In the most recent quarter, the number of digital users of The New York Times increased by 223,000, bringing the total to 4.5 million.
On the basis of the above, "The New York Times" CEO Mark Thompson made a bold statement and set the big goal of "breaking through 10 million subscribers by 2025".
New action
In addition, The New York Times regularly organizes daily press conferences (a three-minute edited version of The Daily podcast) on Amazon Alexa, and conducts weekly online quizzes. At the same time, it launched a series of products tailored to Amazon Alexa, providing additional audio content for readers of travel, books and popular columns, and providing links to audio content in the paper version and digital version of the corresponding content.
There is also a new action in the voice media, which is the production of an audio version for the supplement "New York Times Magazine", called "Audiozine", which allows readers to better experience this magazine, just like visiting a museum, wearing headphones and guiding Accompanied by the explanation, listen to and feel this magazine, with corresponding music according to the content, such as the sound of lava eruption and the wailing of Lemurs in Madagascar.
The flagship products that can also reflect the transformation are The UpShot and Op-Docs. The UpShot is a column that presents and interprets data.
Readers
In addition, The New York Times regularly organizes daily press conferences (a three-minute edited version of The Daily podcast) on Amazon Alexa, and conducts weekly online quizzes. At the same time, it launched a series of products tailored to Amazon Alexa, providing additional audio content for readers of travel, books and popular columns, and providing links to audio content in the paper version and digital version of the corresponding content.
There is also a new action in the voice media, which is the production of an audio version for the supplement "New York Times Magazine", called "Audiozine", which allows readers to better experience this magazine, just like visiting a museum, wearing headphones and guiding Accompanied by the explanation, listen to and feel this magazine, with corresponding music according to the content, such as the sound of lava eruption and the wailing of Lemurs in Madagascar.
flagship products
The flagship products that can also reflect the transformation are The UpShot and Op-Docs. The UpShot is a column that presents and interprets data.
The theme of living room furniture is still receiving widespread attention.
In terms of content investment, the "New York Times" can be regarded as a big deal. For example, it has 31 international editorial offices. The London editorial office has doubled since 2013; there are about 200 original reports every day, and highlight the visual impact. More professionals in visual news will also be equipped to improve the status of camera reporters and photo editors.
The new customer cooperation model is also very helpful to the success of The New York Times. They are now mainly providing services for a group of core customers, seeking to establish direct relationships with major major customers, and on the one hand, they have added richer forms of communication in the content. , On the other hand, obtain greater commercial returns.
a research project
Some time ago, this veteran media launched a research project called "2020", which consisted of seven senior media professionals. They spent a year talking with internal and external staff, summarizing the transformation of the New York Times in the past. Also formulated the future development direction.
They proved that the world still needs original, in-depth and professional reports, and that such media can live well in the digital age.
The living room furniture How do companies transform, their respective situations are different, and there must be differences in the roads they can choose. The author believes that two points are certain:
One is the core competitiveness, such as the content originality of the "New York Times", which is their foundation, and our home furnishing companies, whether it is furniture building materials or decoration companies, must have their own foundations. .
Second, under the impact of the external situation, it is necessary to have thoughts and plans to deploy the transformation strategy as soon as possible, instead of waiting and complaining, let alone holding the original advantage and being complacent.