Managing innovations: Georgia's newspapers' approach to the Internet as an emerging technology

Emerging technologies will pose one of the primary management challenges to media industry in the 21st century. This study sought to understand the degree to which the newspaper industry in Georgia was using systematic technology evaluation and adoption processes. To do so, the study examined the processes that newspaper organizations in the state had used to evaluate the Internet as an emerging technology over the past decade and to decide how to respond to it as a potential new product or process technology. The study found that Georgia newspapers had been cautious about the Internet and had invested few resources for its development or undertaken technological or market research about the Internet. However, newspapers, which had believed that the Internet was a new product, were more likely to have a more comprehensive response to developing their online edition.