Newspapers using self-reinforcing production rules missed online opportunities

Evidence

Similarly, Gilbert (2005) described newspaper companies who stuck to self-reinforcing rules for producing a newspaper and thereby became unable to exploit new online opportunities. More recently, Koch (2008) provided evidence of similar patterns in German quality newspapers. Adopting joint rules of quality journalism brought about significant coordination advantages and the lasting constitution of a once successful business model. Nowadays, the flip side of this path is broadly discussed. — Jörg Sydow, Georg Schreyögg, and Jochen Koch, Organizational Path Dependence, 82

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: how quality-journalism norms, once a moat, became the industry’s lock-in.
• ADDENDUM: Echoes the media/infrastructure theme of ‘Grafting & Growth’ — shared standards as both enabler and trap.