Roger Cohen, formerly a columnist for the IHT, and presently now with The New York Times, and whose voice lamented the departure of "An American in Paris" above, tells us that for the IHT it's "time to move on," but it may not be that simple. Be assured that any time you willingly sacrifice a well-known, venerable, even beloved brand, you are placing a big bet! While the adoption of the new International New York Times is undoubtedly a choice to go forward with a brand that's already well-known for excellence on the global stage, it's a choice nonetheless, and one which has no guarantee of success.
Choosing to focus on a single leading brand, in a beleaguered industry undergoing disruption, may not be a bad choice at all, however. In fact, what I think of as "the success story mythology" of modern management -- Tom Peters' In Search of Excellence, Jim Collins' Good to Great, etc. etc. -- will tell you that "sticking to your knitting" or being more "hedgehog-" like is one of the keynote attributes of great companies. Focus is the preferred strategic solution in a world complicated by a blurring of industry lines and uncertain competitive arenas. After all, the single scarcest resource that any organization possesses is the managerial attention of its leadership team. To the extent that this is stretched across multiple offerings for multiple markets, via multiple channels, there is less hope for the clarity of attention that an organization needs to move innovatively, rapidly and decisively.
Arthur Ochs Sulzburger, Jr., Publisher of The New York Times, put it this way:
And, he likened it to the choice that his father made in 1980 "to make The Times a national newspaper .... Though seen as a gamble at the time, it was clearly the right decision."
But, here's the rub: the success story mythology is only just that: mythology! My good friend and IMD colleague Phil Rosenzweig has warned us in The Halo Effect, that you cannot regard the writings of the hugely popular management success story literature as being "science", and another good friend, Deloitte's Michael Raynor, has added: "this doesn’t mean that you should necessarily dismiss the advice offered in success studies. The authors are savvy observers of the business world. Their recommendations can be useful..." but, again, such advice, built upon questionable methodology, cannot be completely reassuring with respect to reliability, especially in a fast-changing world. This is a big strategic choice to dump the IHT brand, and, once dormant, even an esteemed brand can quickly lose its luster.
The alternative is to employ a portfolio of brands to spread risk across more than one offering. Why not? Apple, for example, has diversified -- Macs, iPods, iPhone, iPads, etc., and is much stronger for doing it, and Amazon has consistently diversified its platform into ever more imaginative offerings, without seemingly losing its way. The New York Times corporation, however, has hardly ever been what would be considered diverse in its portfolio of offerings, even with its partial ownership of the Boston Red Sox, WQXR Radio, The Boston Globe, and assorted television stations, and internet activities, most of which have all been sold-off in advance of, or as part of, the present focusing campaign. So, perhaps, variety has never really been a viable consideration. And, we all recall, for example, what happened when Gerald Levin, Steve Case and Ted Turner tried to gain synergies from the multiple interests of
For those of us who are news junkies, and who love great journalism, this is more than of just passing interest. The New York Times is an integral part of our lives, to the extent that we all have a real stake in the outcome of this bet. But, then again, so also was the "Trib" an important part of many of our lives, at one point, as well. In truth, there is little we can do but watch with concern and great interest at how this all plays out in front of our very eyes over the next few years. But, we all know as well, from the mythology of modern management, that great organizations aspire to agility, so for that reason I have chosen to bid the IHT Au Revoir, which has more possibility for future options, than Roger Cohen's more definitive choice of Au Dieu!
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Bill Fischer is the co-author of Reinventing Giants (with Umberto Lago & Fang Liu) (Jossey-Bass, 2013), as well as The Idea Hunter (with Andy Boynton & Bill Bole) (Jossey-Bass, 2011) and Virtuoso Teams (with Andy Boynton, FT/Prentice Hall, 2005)). Bill can be followed on Twitter at @bill_fischer
