Innovation is a fact of life for the media industry, and it was ever thus. Historically viewed, media organisations have always needed to innovate – as indeed have organisations in all other industrial sectors. In recent decades, however, the requirement for innovation in the media industry has become both more urgent and more challenging as the pace and scope of technological advance have increased.
Innovation and technological advance are inextricably linked. Innovation is the motor of technological advance, and organisations must innovate in order to respond to this advance. In large part, media firms’ current pressing imperative to innovate stems from the unceasing technological advance that has become a permanent element of their strategic environment. As a result, technology and innovation have leap-frogged up the strategic agenda in media organisations – creating in the process strategic challenges that are not always perfectly mastered.