by Thomas Macaulay

News UK CTO Christina Scott says patience and unity crucial in digital transformation and change management

Feature
Oct 12, 2016
IT LeadershipMedia and Entertainment Industry

News UK CTO Christina Scott says transforming culture is more important than changing technology to make digital transformation a success. And it’s the CIOs, she believes, who are responsible for ensuring their team adapts.

“As CIOs, we should ensure that everyone is on the same page, taking our entire team along with us in this digital journey,”she told CIO UK‘s sister title CIO India following the launch of a News UK office in Bangalore. The centre will work with News UK’s London team to develop apps and live news products for the company.

The cultural transformations she instigated in the UK would have prepared her well for the change in culture she encountered in India. Scott is currently responsible for overseeing Technology and Product teams at News UK, which publishes The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun. Before joining the media company in February, she worked on the digital transformation of the Financial Times prior to and following its purchase by Japanese media group Nikkei.

As people are often resistant to new ways of working, Scott prefers a constant state of evolution to a sudden dramatic technological change, as a way to alleviate the adaptation process.

“Change management is something that will inadvertently happen, and for a smooth transition, what employees and organisations need is a lot of patience,” said Scott, a member of the CIO 100 in each of the last three years.

At News UK, that transition means competing digitally with emerging news-hosting platforms such as Facebook and Google while preserving print and the established reputation of the company among its long-standing customers.

“Newspapers have a dedicated audience, and that will not change. For revenue streams, we can’t depend just on traditional subscription-based models or advertisements, but we also need to look at other methods of revenue generation,” she added.