Better boston business journal

Many of those digital subscribers are still paying less than full fare and will need to be convinced to renew. Those remaining print readers still generate an outsized portion of its income. It would also be wrong to say what the Globe has achieved can be matched by all or even most other newspapers facing a similar transition.

Cite this article Hide citations. Benton, Joshua. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 21 May. Benton, J. Another milestone passed for newspapers: The Boston Globe is the first local newspaper to have more digital subscribers than print.

Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified May 21, Accessed October 25, The Nieman Journalism Lab is a collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the Internet age. May 21, , p. By Joshua Benton jbenton May 21, , p. Want to see what one digital future for newspapers looks like?

Joshua Benton. May 1, The New York Times is getting close to becoming a majority-digital company. February 6, Show comments Hide comments. Show tags Hide tags. Process automation can further enhance accounting control and efficiency, with benefits that extend across the accounting function to areas such as taxes, accounts payable, and accounts receivable.

A fully digital control system can even use algorithms to ensure data traceability and integrity and improve the overall control environment. Enhanced Decision Making. With access to better, more timely data, finance teams can analyze patterns and trends, gain new insights, and respond more quickly to changes in the marketplace.

AI, predictive analytics, machine learning, and advanced algorithms can reveal unexpected drivers behind business performance. Before going digital, the finance team had to detect fraud using labor-intensive methods such as calling customers and manually looking up addresses.

Lower Costs and Fewer Errors. RPA can reduce the manual work associated with routine rules-based tasks and sharply reduce error rates and rework.

Given that data and transactions are more easily audited, digital tools can reduce the need for external service providers. Decreased Risk and Higher Returns. Many finance functions create economic value directly through treasury activities such as cash and investment management, capital market financing, and foreign exchange hedging. Machine learning and AI algorithms can deliver objective, predictive models to help CFOs unlock and extract greater financial value from these activities.

For example, a multinational firm developed a predictive hedging model to reduce exposure to currency and commodity volatility. Compared with traditional hedging, the new model reduced potential losses in more than For additional comparisons of historic versus digital processes, see Exhibit 2.

Clearly, digital technologies have the potential to dramatically improve the performance of the finance function. But most companies struggle to prioritize and focus their digital efforts.

Understand that digital investment per se does not guarantee digital success and positive ROI. Before they invest, companies, particularly those that are large and decentralized, should evaluate—and fix—organizational and process roadblocks that might limit the impact of digital transformation.

Our experience in a variety of industries suggests the following guidelines for getting started. Prioritize opportunities. Start by assessing the weaknesses, or pain points, in your organization—these offer the best opportunities for early digital success. Some areas may be saddled by high-cost, manual processes or data integrity issues.

Others may be lacking in planning or analytical power and insight. So, it falls to the CFO to determine which specific opportunities will bring the most incremental value to the organization in the short term. Benchmarking your peers will provide further insight. But because no organization has unlimited time and resources, prioritize the most pressing initiatives on the basis of cost, complexity, time to results, and projected benefits. Think big and stay focused.

Start with test projects that focus on the highest-priority areas. Use these projects to lay the foundation, develop capabilities, and refine new ways of working.

Then aggressively scale them across the function. Know what drives value. Digital technologies provide massive analytical power, offering finance teams new clarity into value drivers—not just financial drivers such as revenue growth and expenses but drivers at the operational and business unit levels.

One company analyzed its products, costs, and revenues across every business and geographic area. Expand your digital toolkit. Look for ways to roll out additional tools—consistent with your digital strategy—for even bigger benefits. Download targeted list data and C-level contact information with this up-to-date resource for quality leads and business intelligence. Learn More. Great for industry-specific leads — compile data from multiple cities!

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