Business Report: The Guardian Newspaper's Market and SWOT Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of The Guardian newspaper, a prominent British daily. It begins with an introduction and a historical overview, tracing the newspaper's origins and evolution. The report delves into the market size of the UK newspaper industry, highlighting revenue trends and employment figures. A SWOT analysis is conducted to evaluate the newspaper's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Furthermore, a PEST analysis examines the impact of political, economic, social, technological, and demographic factors on the newspaper's operations. The report also addresses the human resource department's approach and applies Porter's Five Forces framework to assess competitive dynamics within the industry. The analysis covers the bargaining power of suppliers and customers, the threat of substitutes and new entrants, and competitive rivalry. The report concludes with a summary of key findings and insights into The Guardian's position within the media landscape.

Running Head: The Guardian
Business

The Guardian 1
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
History of the Guardian...................................................................................................................3
Market size.......................................................................................................................................4
SWOT Analysis of the Guardian.....................................................................................................4
Strength........................................................................................................................................4
Weakness.....................................................................................................................................4
Opportunity..................................................................................................................................5
Threats.........................................................................................................................................5
Pest Analysis....................................................................................................................................5
Human resource department............................................................................................................7
Porter’s Five Forces.........................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

The Guardian 2
Introduction
The report is based on the media industry of the United Kingdom. There are different types of
media such as television, radio, website and the newspaper. This report is based on The Guardian
newspaper which is one of the popular newspapers in the UK. The Guardian is a British daily
newspaper, known from 1821 until 1959 as the Manchester Guardian. This newspaper is a part
of the Guardian Media Group which is owned by the Scott Trust. The report talks about the
history of the newspaper and the environmental analysis of the newspaper company.

The Guardian 3
History of the Guardian
The Manchester Guardian was originated by the John Edward Taylor in the year 1821. The first
paper was published on the 5th May 1821. It was printed weekly on Saturdays until 1836, in the
year 1836 a new Wednesday edition was added. In the year 1855, the stamp duty on the
newspapers was abolished this opened the doors for the newspaper publisher to publish the paper
daily, at the decreased cover price of 2D. The Guardian achieved the international and the
national recognition under the editorship of C.P. Scott. C.P. Scott was the editor for 57 years
from 1872. He was the first owner who bought the paper from the estate of Taylor's son in the
year 1907. In June 1936, JR Scott officially handed the ownership of The Guardian to the
Trustees of the Scott Trust (The Guardian, 2017). The Guardian was the first newspaper who
appointed a reader editor (producer of the clarification and corrections column) in the year 1977.
The Guardian started developing the online publications in the year 1994-95. The paper's
innovation segment Online was propelled in late 1995, and locales for occupations, certain
games, and news occasions completed 1996-1998. The new Berliner Guardian launched
groundbreaking design in a mid-size format on 12th September 2005. The paper was the first
newspaper who adopted this size in their newspaper. The newspaper was the first color national
newspaper in the UK. In the past few years, the guardian expanded and developed its digital
operations. In the year 2009-201, the company launched a collection of new digital products and
services such as iPhone and iPod touch, Open Platform and the Datablog (first national data
journalism site). In June 2011 Guardian News and Media declared plans to wind up noticeably
an advanced first association, setting open reporting on the web at the core of its procedure.

The Guardian 4
Market size
The newspaper publishing research report provides the key analysis of the industry and the
market that includes the market size of the UK. The revenue of the guardian was $bn but the
growth of the newspaper was -4.2% in the year 2012-2017. The employment in this industry was
approximately 49,150 (IBIS World, 2017). The UK traditional method of making a profit is
decreasing in demand for the print media advertisement. This is the reason behind the decrease in
the revenue and the growth of the industry. The digital advertising revenue is growing in the
market due to the transformation from the print media to the digital media. The publishers are
still adapting to the online markets (Sweney, 2016).
SWOT Analysis of the Guardian
The SWOT analysis is used by the guardian to analyze the strength, weakness, opportunity, and
threats (Syazwan Ab Talib, and Bakar Abdul Hamid, 2014).
Strength
 The guardian is a very old newspaper that is the reason a majority of the people have the
trust on the updates of the Guardian. Most of the customers of the guardian are loyal
towards it.
 The Guardian is having a strong presence in the market of the UK.
Weakness
 The guardian should think to enhance the customer service, as customer service is the
only way to establish a good relationship with the customers of the UK.
 The political party may Downgrade the standards of the newspaper.

The Guardian 5
Opportunity
 The guardian can easily bring the innovation in the work; it helps the company to attract
the customers towards The Guardian.
 There is an opportunity to enhance the sales by promoting on large scale via the internet.
 The newspaper can generate more opportunities by performing the tie-up or the
partnership with the other websites to enhance the sales of the Guardian newspapers.
Apart from this company can think of the expansion of the business.
Threats
 Increasing competition with the other newspaper is becoming a threat for the guardian.
The most of the competitors are now using the digital advertising which is an emerging
threat for the newspaper.
 The newspaper might face the threat of the roadblock through the bad reviews of the
other customers. This can be a threat to the image and brand value of the newspaper.
Pest Analysis
The use of the PEST analysis is done to analyze the macro-environmental factors that affect the
Guardian newspaper. The analysis shows that the guardian was affected by the two main factors
that are technology and recessions (Fargani, Cheung, and Hasan, 2017). These factors create an
indirect impact on the social and cultural factors.
Political factors: - There is no as such political impact on the guardian media and news. The
impact of the political factors such as terrorist attack or election can create an impact on the
readers of the newspaper. At the time of the political issues the demand for the media increases,
the sales of the newspaper increases. The readership will get affected that will create an indirect

The Guardian 6
impact on the demand of the newspaper (Dalton, 2013). At the time of this political news,
readers refer to the online news instead of prints so that they get the last update.
Economic factors: - Considering the newspaper company, the economic factors include falling
margins, drops in circulation, declining advertising sales, high copy prices and the loss of
classified advertising. The guardian faces the decline of the advertising revenue because of the
availability of the internet. Indirectly the technology use impacted the economic side of the UK
newspaper and media industry.
Socio and culture: - The behavior of the customers is one of the factors included in the social
and cultural factors which are affected by the technology indirectly. The reading habits of the
customers are influenced by the use of the technology. The low internet cost and the use of the
easy search engines changed the perception of the customers in regards to the value of prints; use
of the bookmarks enables the readers to scan and access the internet news fast. This is the reason
which influenced the company to adopt the digital. Demographic change also impacted the
demand of the newspaper; the people having the age group of 18-24 are increasing in numbers.
Technological factors: - The internet is one of the powerful and advanced technologies that
have changed the way of the mass communication. The internet impacted the newspaper industry
through the substitutions of the prints. The reader opens the sites with the help of the internet,
these sites provide everything which is found in the newspaper (Karimi, and Walter, 2016). The
Guardian has had to complement their daily prints along with the online version and the further
updates all over the day. Now the readers don’t have to wait for the updates till the next day
print. The technology progress and the internet have brought the vast change in the perception
and habits of the readers. This affected the working and the sales of the newspaper industry of
the UK, even this forced the guardian to adopt the changes in the way of providing the details.

The Guardian 7
Human resource department
The company Human resource team believes in hiring employees have the skills and capabilities.
The organizational culture of the company attracts the journalist towards the company
(Armstrong, and Taylor, 2014). The guardian media and news believes in the open collaboration
on a global scale. The newspaper company encourages teams to work together, feel empowered
to take the experiment and the decisions and to be accountable. The employees of the Guardian
newspaper get the vast opportunities of learning (The Guardian, 2017). The publisher believes
that together the company can achieve the great future ahead. The HR of the guardian hires the
people having the skills of the editorial, digital, commercial and the professional roles. The
people who have passion related to the media and news they usually get attracted towards the
company (The Guardian, 2017).
Porter’s Five Forces
The porter five forces framework is used by the business to analyze the competitors of a
business. It consists of the evaluation of the five forces that helps in understanding the
competitive intensity and profitability of the newspaper (Rothaermel, 2015).
Bargaining power of suppliers
The suppliers of the newspaper industry include the dealers of the ink, paper, journalist which is
low. There are many suppliers with whom the newspaper company can do the tie-up. The
journalists play a vital role for the newspaper companies because this is the only sources for the
newspaper company to get the stories and updates (Ruigrok, and Van Tulder, 2013). The
Guardian believes to make the team of the journalist through which they can get all the updates

The Guardian 8
and the stories that help the company in publishing the updated news. The stories and updates
should be written in the format so that the people can easily understand.
Bargaining power of customers
The numbers of the buyers of the guardian are high due to the increasing buyer power. The
prices of the newspaper kept by the publishers are almost same; there is hardly any difference in
the prices (Laudon, and Traver, 2013). It totally depends on the choices of the customers
regarding the selection of the newspaper.
Threat of substitutes
The Guardian might face the threat of the substitutes as there is an availability of the electronic
newspaper. Most of the customers nowadays are switching on the electronic newspaper The
Daily Telegraph. The use of electronic newspaper is increasing because of the convenience of
the customers. The Internet is easily accessible everywhere which helps the customers to browse
daily newspapers (Kew, and Stredwick, 2017). This is the reason electronic newspaper is able to
attract the potential customers of the guardian.
Threat of entry
The entry in the British newspaper industry is difficult for the new player. As the industry need
the huge expectation and the new newspaper publisher might face the problem of the establishing
the brand recognition in the market. The price among the existing newspaper publishers resists
the entrants of the new publisher in the UK market (Nielsen, 2017). The Guardian will not face
any threat of the new entry in the industry.
Competitive rivalry

The Guardian 9
The competition among the British newspaper is increasing continuously. The guardian also
faces competition with the newspaper publishers like Express Newspapers, The daily telegraph,
general trust and daily email. In this competition, the Guardian is willing to win the market share
for their newspaper. In all the newspapers there are only slight differences which makes the
newspaper difference from each other. The Guardian can only bring the changes through the
branding of the newspaper by doing so the publisher will be able to attract the customers.

The Guardian 10
Conclusion
The report throws light on the analysis of the British newspaper “The Guardian”. It shows the
history of the Guardian media group and also the emergence and the popularity of the guardian
media. The reports show the factors that affected the working of the guardian. These factors
influence the newspaper to bring the changes in regards to the acceptance of the internet for
updating the news. This acceptance was done by the company to maintain the reader’s
connection because the readers decreased the demand for the prints. The swot analysis reflects
the weakness of the company that is customer service; the guardian should improve the customer
services by enhancing the customer satisfaction (Phillips, and Mighall, 2014). The guardian
should grab the opportunity to grow in the market. The report also shows the competitive
analysis that affects the working of the Guardian.

The Guardian 11
References
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Dalton, R.J., 2013. Citizen politics: Public opinion and political parties in advanced industrial
democracies. Cq Press.
Fargani, H., Cheung, W.M. and Hasan, R., 2017, September. A Proposed Implementation
Process for a Sustainable Manufacturing Framework. In Advances in Manufacturing Technology
XXXI: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Manufacturing Research,
Incorporating the 32nd National Conference on Manufacturing Research, September 5–7, 2017,
University of Greenwich, UK (Vol. 6, p. 365). IOS Press.
IBIS World, 2017, Newspaper Publishing, viewed on 1st October 2015,
https://www.ibisworld.co.uk/industry-trends/market-research-reports/information-
communication/publishing-activities/newspaper-publishing.html
Karimi, J. and Walter, Z., 2016. Corporate entrepreneurship, disruptive business model
innovation adoption, and its performance: The case of the newspaper industry. Long Range
Planning, 49(3), pp.342-360.
Kew, J. and Stredwick, J., 2017. Business environment: managing in a strategic context. Kogan
Page Publishers.
Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G., 2013. E-commerce. Pearson.