ENDANGERED SPECIES? DISRUPTIVE CHANGE AND ORGANIZATIONAL ADAPTATION IN THE U.S. NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY

摘要

The U.S. newspaper industry is undergoing a tumultuous period of disruptive change andstrategic upheaval. At the center of this disruptive change is the disconnect between the businessmodel espoused by traditional print newspapers and the rapid change in technology, competitionand customer taste witnessed in the last couple of decades. In this study, we seek to explain thevarious factors that led to the profound strategic shifts in the newspaper industry and the natureof effective organizational adaptation to changing external demands. Specifically, we draw fromthe Structural Contingency Theory (SCT) to develop a theoretical explanation of organizationalresponses to the strategic shifts that are taking place in the newspaper industry. We then discussthe successful organizational responses of three national U.S. newspapers using our theoreticalframework.