Anadian Media and Publishing Firm - Essay Example

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS By: Course: Tutor: University: October 21st, 2015 Media entails the various methods that people use in communicating with one another. When communication targets a big number of people, it is thus referred to as ‘mass media'. Some examples of media include TVs, radios, films, newspapers, and The Internet. The media industry is used in entertaining, informing. However, it is of use in persuading, informing, explaining and advising. The media industry is used as a powerful tool in marketing businesses. Various companies use media as a way of creating awareness to the audience (Ben et al. 2007). Information Technology is one of the factors that have brought about transformation in the society. The application of electronic gadgets and in specific, with the inclusion of internet technology, is currently almost a compulsory requirement in business marketing. Of late, use of internet has turned out to be considerably affected by the usage of social medium, and it completely brought a transformation of internet usage. Social media acts as one of the platforms that facilitate interactive communication amongst people, the society, and businesses. Social media entails a collection of any Internet-based application that builds on the concept and technical foundation of Web 2.0, and that which pave a way to the conception and exchange of user-generated resources (Kaplan et al., 2010). Various organizations are taking advantage of Social media to collaborate social interactions as well as progressively evolving the opportunities in these interactions. Comcast Corp. The company was conceived and realized by Daniel Aaron, Julian A. Brodsky and in 1963. The Comcast Corp Company has its headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Comcast Corp has about 139,000 workers and has total sales of $68.78 Billion. The company had Market Cap (On May 2015) $147.8 Billion (Forbes, 2015). (Forbes, 2015). The current CEO of the company is Brian Roberts. This company has been ranked the globe's biggest media company in 2015. It is an entertainment as well as communication organization. This organization provides videos, high-speed Internet connections and mobile-phones services to individuals as well as business clients within the US. Comcast Corp has its operation of its business that range within five fields: Cable Communication, Cable Networking, Broadcast TV, Entertainments and Theme Park (Forbes, 2015). The department that deals with Cable Communications offers videos, high-speed Internets and voice services to suburban and businesses. The department dealing with Cable Networks offers countrywide cable TV networks, local sports as well as a news network, global cables network, cable TV production studios, and relevant digital media aspects. The department dealing with Broadcast Television offers NBC as well as Telemundo broadcasting networks. The department that deals with Filmed Entertainment entails the operation of the Universal Pictures, which deals with the production, acquisition, marketing and distribution of film entertainment and staging plays globally. The department of Theme Parks entails the Universal theme parks within the Orlando as well as Hollywood (Forbes, 2015). Snapchat This company entails a video messaging application that was programmed by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown while studying at Stanford University in 2011. Through this application, one is capable of taking photographs, recording videos, adding texts and drawings, as well as sending them to restricted lists of recipients. The sent photos and video files are referred to as the "Snaps". Within the snapchat, a user usually sets the time frame within which the recipient views the snaps. By September 2015, the time frame was ranging between 1 and 10 seconds. After the set time elapses, the Snaps get deleted from the servers as stated by Snapchat. In accordance to Snapchat, by May 2014, the users of the application were sending about seven hundred million photographs and video files daily, at the same time as Snapchat Stories content were viewed five hundred million times daily. This business is valued at $10–$20 billion (Talbot 2015). Different brands as well as those who create content use snapchat in producing day to day stories that aim at engaging and exciting the audience. The Snapchat stories, lasting for 24 hours, entail strings of snaps used in the creation of video narratives. Since there are more than one billion views of the Snapchat stories daily, business uses it as a platform of marketing their brands. Snapchat is ideal for real-time social media marketers since audience directly accesses the live events. Businesses are using snapchat in launching their products, commercial shows or even a one of a kind event such as the 1,000th client to shop in the firms' stores. Snapchat gets the company’s audience thrilled since the marketers provide various, extra real view of what is happening in the course of the occasion (Talbot 2015). Companies also use Snapchat in providing unique content to their audience that which they are not likely to get from other digital media. Marketers come up with special content that surprises their community of followers. Some fashion brands, for example, the Michael Kors and Rebecca Minkoff use Snapchat in debuting their collections to their audience prior to hitting the runway. Using the Snapchat platform, one is capable of providing behind-the-scenes content to one’s followers. This is of great help since it facilitated the creation and engagement of staunch community of followers (Talbot 2015). Torstar Corporation It is a Canadian media and publishing firm. The company is situated in one Yonge Street within Toronto. Torstar Corporation mainly publishes the daily and community newspapers, as well as its flagship and namesake, the Toronto Star. Torstar Corporation is owning a twenty percent stake on the Victoria, British Columbia-based newspapers Publisher: Black Press. On 2nd May 2014, Torstar announced the sale of Harlequin Enterprises, which publishes romance novels, to the HarperCollins for $415 million. This was as a result of the financial crisis that had been facing the company for a while. The net loss that is attributed to equity shareholders was reported as $3.7 million (that is, $0.05 per share) during the 1st quarter of 2015. This is in comparison with the net income attributed to equity shareholders of approximately $7.1 million (that is, $0.09 per share) during the 1st quarter of 2014.  The 1st quarter 2015 segmented operational profits had a decrease of $1.7 million, that is, 100 percent from the 1st quarter of 2014.  These statistics are showing that the company is gradually collapsing (Torstar 2015). Reference List Ben, C; Gregory, B; Frank, C; Bud, S. (2007). Digital Marketing for Dummies, John Wiley & Sons Forbes. (2015). The World’s Biggest Public Companies. [Online] Forbes Available at http://www.forbes.com/companies/comcast/ [Accessed 22 Oct. 2015]. Kaplan, A. M., &ump; Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59–68. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003 Talbot, T. (2015). 5 Ways to Use Snapchat for Business, Retrieved from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-ways-to-use-snapchat-for-business/ Torstar. (2015). Torstar Corporation Reports First Quarter Results, [Online] Torstar. Retrieved from http://www.torstar.com/html/whats_new/index.cfm?view=article&wnID=165 [Accessed 22 Oct. 2015]. Read More