As publishers pursue semi-commercial production strategies, a lot of the industry’s attention is on those technology investments that increase a newspaper’s ability to produce both daily newspapers and custom commercial work.

I argue that technology alone does not necessarily lead to a competitive advantage, much less a sustainable one. Instead, newspapers should consider the concept of sustainability by first aligning their business’ strategies with the identified operation capabilities they wish to exploit (see Newspapers & Technology, July and November 2007).

 

To do that, newspapers should first examine their options, using an approach called the resource-based view. The RBV emphasizes that the combination of a newspaper’s operational capabilities, in conjunction with its resources, can translate into a substantial competitive advantage.

Newspapers have an abundance of specialized skills and technologies that have as their primary goal the expeditious gathering and delivery of local news and associated content.

To that end, each newspaper department is aligned along a common goal: gather, bundle and produce the news across a variety of channels, both electronic and print.

Characteristics for sustainability

Sustainable projects usually sport three main characteristics.

First, competing firms must be heterogeneous with respect to their operations’ capabilities and resources. The more similar the capabilities and resources are, the more difficult they are to translate to a sustainable competitive advantage.

Second, capabilities and resources should be scarce and not readily mobile. If they can be easily acquired and transferred, then their competitive advantage will not remain sustainable in the long run.

Finally, a competitive advantage may become sustainable if a current or potential competitor cannot readily implement a newspaper’s capabilities and resources. The inability to duplicate or imitate the benefits of such capabilities and resources allows them to remain sustainable over time.

Technology investments

With the proper strategy, technology investments can be used to support and enhance a newspaper’s operations, capabilities and resources. Although technology by itself may be imitable, how it is exploited is what gives a newspaper its competitive advantage.

When a newspaper considers the technologies needed to print semi-commercially, it must ask if the steps it’s about to take will translate into a sustainable competitive advantage. If not, then a newspaper may not be ready to compete successfully in the long run with experienced commercial printers.

Remember, success requires more than possessing the correct technology. Instead, it is the recipe that you use to deploy the technology that provides a lasting competitive advantage.

Bundle your technology, operational capabilities and resources into a technology competency that will let you produce a sustainable competitive advantage.

David Zepeda, an operations and management science doctoral student at the University of Minnesota, can be reached at zepe0003@umn.edu.