Publications
Publications
- March 2003 (Revised October 2003)
- HBS Case Collection
Mercury Rising: Knight Ridder's Digital Venture
Abstract
Captures the efforts of newspaper publisher Knight Ridder to create a digital venture. Knight Ridder proves to be a pioneer in digital publishing, launching the first online newspaper site; builds a network of newspaper sites called Real Cities; and invests in Careerbuilder, the second largest career site after Monster.com. However, the company has cumulatively lost over $100 million in its core Internet operations, is missing important categories of advertising revenue, and is operating in an ad recession at the time of the case. Tracks the evolution of the venture that spans nearly a decade and can be summarized in three distinct periods: 1) initial launch and experimentation, 2) rapid expansion within the newspaper organization vs. operation as a separate venture, and 3) managing the venture after the Internet bubble has burst.
Keywords
Internet and the Web; Business Growth and Maturation; Market Entry and Exit; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Newspapers; Innovation and Invention; Journalism and News Industry
Citation
Gilbert, Clark. "Mercury Rising: Knight Ridder's Digital Venture." Harvard Business School Case 803-107, March 2003. (Revised October 2003.)