Registration number: NUST201361795MNBS75013FSchibsted WACQ.1 Were the important success breeding turns in Schibsted life, a result of mere luck or could you trace any elements of strategic planning there?Their success was not a matter of mere luck but carefully created strategy. At every stage they strategized on the basis of changes in the market dynamic and catered to changes within the company. Internet When they saw that the internet presented value added opportunities, they strategized their business accordingly. They took their strong position, cash flow and competitive advantage and took aggressive positions in the online market. They transformed from print media to electronic media. They also reorganized into three business units print media, TV/Film and multimedia. They kept the online initiatives outside the newspaper so that each would defend its own turfs without hindering the others working. Schibsted made many mergers and acquisitions in this regard: Became partner with the internet portal Scandinavia Online Joint venture with Telenor Created an online classified business Online news siteDot.com bubbleEven when dot.com bubble burst and they had to face losses, they strategized around it, instead of shutting down online initiatives like most firms did. They narrowed focus, they continued with online newspaper, classified advertising and free dailies but by cutting costs and assets. Classified advertisingIn the classified advertising strategy, they saw, their initial strategy (1996) was not working so they changed it in 1999. They re-divided ownership and rebranded it. They positioned FINN as a sub-brand of the main newspaper to achieve trust and loyalty of the customers. The hiring was strategic in FINN, for every category of ads an expert in that category was hired because expert would know what the people in the category are looking for. Product development and sales were integrated and pricing strategy was different from print. To mitigate defensive environment within organization, challenges were created, like they were allowed to attack the mother. They gained success in FINN by striking right balance between learning culture, forgetting of certain aspects of traditional business and synergy.Online newsWhen online news started getting popular they created an online newspaper but it was eventually separated from the print operations. The content was continuously updated although this was not happening in the market. Their online format was different from print, they had square strategy to engage more eyeballs on website. They followed the motto of engage now rather than yesterday. Free dailiesIntroduction of free dailies was also strategic move. The revenue came from advertising and resulted in cost efficient newspaper. Newspaper could attract new and young readers. They leveraged their credibility to attract advertisers.Online successThey leveraged online success and made additional investments in them, like online trade and industry newspaper and search engine. The above success turns indicate that every phase was a carefully thought strategy not luck.Q.2. how do you propose, should Schibsted find growth in their online classified business? Online classified business is the most profitable part of Schibsted and they should pursue its growth. The first thing they can do is, use the revenues made at home to go global. They can become the market leaders of the global market by transferring this business and its business model in other countries. They can transfer the model cost effectively by doing acquisitions, joint ventures and partnerships with the news firms and other related businesses in the host countries. The customers of classified will be able to sell and buy in more comprehensive markets. By doing so, the business will be able to share costs, man power and expertise to build more awareness among the consumers of classifieds.Schibsted can also promote growth in online classifieds by integrating its online classified companies like FINN, blockit and other partnerships it would develop, under one name. Then they can segment the customers according to particular demographics and direct particular ads towards them to effectively target them. This will promote organic growth. They should introduce classifieds over the mobile as well, as the mobile commerce is increasing and customers are shifting on mobiles. Managers should meet often to discuss the growth strategies and see if all the growth initiatives are working up to the mark. So that anything that is causing loss rather than growth can be caught on time. The product development process should be standardized to grow through economies of scale. They can focus on increasing the web traffic and employ software that can help in this. They can also increase the traffic for their classified ads through social media by using attractive video ads. They can also use the information they have in their databases regarding their customers to predict the behavior of other potential customers and by doing so increase their customer base.

Q.3. Should Schibsteds online news sites move aggressively to develop motion picture capability that would further lead them to compete with broadcast media?Schibsted have always been proactive in doing their business whether it was about coming over the internet or innovating in the classifieds. They already invest in user generated content. But stopping here is not enough as the broadcast media also becomes their competitor they need to invest in developing motion picture capability in their online news. Consumers are evolving as well, they need more interactive content rather than long documented stories. Consumers like visualization of stories so developing motion picture capability aggressively will be the right move. They already have the user-base who deliver user generated content, once motion picture capability would be introduced, they will be able to get user-generated content in the form of videos as well. This will contribute to their news cycle, they will be able to update their customers quickly with better news. This will put them head to head with broadcast media but broadcast media cannot update as quickly as Schibsteds online news will be able to with the help of motion picture capability. Consumers will not only know what is happening around the world, when it is happening they will also be able to see it happening. This will be extremely profitable for Schibsted. Since they are famous for their credibility and people trust them to provide them good quality news. This will be different than any other website providing news via videos. They have the necessary infrastructure available where they can develop the motion picture capability in its online news. As the markets evolve, and consumers begin to consume media in different ways and through different platforms. They expect that the services they get through online media and news should follow them seamlessly. They expect the businesses to know them, predict their needs and give immediate response. This will create digital consumers and a market gap for them, by aggressively developing motion picture capability they will be able to tap this gap effectively and proactively. Something that broadcast media wont be able to do.