Washington Post to Incease Migration from Print to Online
Case Type: increase sales; operations strategy.
Consulting Firm: Simon Kucher & Partners (SKP) first round summer internship job interview.
Industry Coverage: Publishing, Mass Media & Communications; online business.
Case Interview Question #00714: Your client The Washington Post (WP) is an American daily newspaper. It is the most widely circulated newspaper published in Washington, D.C., and was founded in 1877, making it the area’s oldest extant newspaper. Daily editions are printed for the District of Columbia, 
Maryland and Virginia.
As a major metropolitan newspaper, Washington Post runs advertisements for employers seeking employees (job ads/help wanted ads). Recently, the newspaper has realized that to compete it must offer the ad space on its online version as well. Online, it doesn’t have traditional competitors — its competitors are sites like Linkedin.com, Dice.com, Monster.com and Craigslist.com. It is looking to you to tell it how to manage the migration from print to online. Specifically they would like to know:
- How should they match the pace of the market as more employers go online?
- Should they push employers to spend for online ads?
- How can it maintain the revenue generated by printed advertising while still pushing for more online revenue?
What would you recommend to Washington Post?
Additional Information: (Provide the following information if requested by interviewee)
Revenue from job advertising breaks down into 70 percent revenue from print ads and 30 percent revenue from online ads.
Print ads are currently more profitable – $800 profit per print ad versus $400 profit per online job ad.
Of jobseekers who use this newspaper (and the newspaper’s website) for job seeking, 70 percent currently use print, 30 percent use the website.
Different companies are adopting online advertising at different paces: the early adopters of the website job ads are technology companies and professional service companies. The slower to adapt are government agencies, health care organizations.
Possible Solution:
Keep both print and online advertising as package options, especially as print is twice as profitable as online.
Target print advertising towards slower adaptors, while also developing a great site to serve clients that only want to go online (can be creative here — what would you do with the site to distinguish it from a site like monster.com?).
Train sales force to plug both opportunities, but to understand the client’s needs and build a package that suit’s them best. Once the client is hooked to one option, it will be easier to sell the alternate option.
Use the print vs. online packages as an opportunity to bundle advertising print and online ads.