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 through its ownership of the Mirror and the Star newspapers.

Media terminology used

Cost rationalisation

Any strategy used by media producers to help them save production costs. Bulk buying for instance allows media producers to save money on raw material costs. Horizontal integration also saves money by rationalising personnel needs.

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. Reach PLC for instance uses one printing press to produce a number of different newspapers - saving Reach the expense of paying external printers to manufacture their titles.