Interesting article about how IBM completely transformed its business. They went from a hardware company to an IT services company. The author believes that newspapers are at that same crossroads but he doesn’t offer much insight into how newspapers are going to make this transition.

Fact is, we are already doing it.

Our digital agency, 1100 Broadway, opened for business a year ago and the lessons we have learned running a digital agency have taught us so much. The original idea was to provide digital and direct solutions for our customers. We have certainly done that. We have served 126 customers so far through 1100 Broadway and the list grows every week. 1100 Broadway revenue will be twice in the fourth quarter what it was in the first quarter. Most importantly, our customers are getting results. With a vastly expanded product line we quickly have realized that we have the ability to sell broad-based marketing solutions to customers. We have gone beyond our own products and services and we are now buying media for our clients, helping them with social networking and helping them track their results. Just this morning, we met with a client in an attempt to sell them our “agency of record” services for their ten-state operation. The customer was quite impressed with all of the services we can offer. We are finding ourselves having these types of discussions more and more with our clients. While we have a long way to go to diversify our company we are more confident than ever that we are on the right track.

Wouldn’t it shock some people if we were the next IBM?

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/dchase/200911/1794/