The Times

The Times: horizontal integration

Curran and Seaton

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News Corporation’s horizontally integrated corporate structure brings an array of benefits for the Times set text. 

Ownership, for instance, of the New York Post and the Australian Daily Telegraph enables the Times to access to non-domestic news without the need to employ expensive foreign correspondents. 

The Times’ global connections with these sister publications is clearly evidenced by it’s ten page daily commitment to non-domestic news in the paper.

Similarly, News Corporation’s ownership of the Sun newspaper in the UK facilitates the sharing of common production based resources and enables further cost rationalisation. Ownership of the social media vetting services, Storyful for instance, allows both papers to source and verify lucrative news leads from social media sources. News Corporation similarly adjusts content printed in both titles to target differentiated audiences, enabling the social media research generated by Storyful to generate multiple revenue streams.

Horizontal integration

The ownership of subsidiaries that produce similar products or services. Reach PLC for instance is horizontally integrated as a result of its owning both The Daily Mirror and The Star.

Media terminology used

Cost rationalisation

A type of strategy used by producers that reduces production costs. Bulk buying, for example, allows media producers to save money on raw materials.

Economies of scale

Achieved when two or more subsidiaries are owned by a media company, allowing conglomerates to make savings through bulk buying or by sharing resources.