(Part 2) How to design a future-fit operating model for media organisations

This article is Part 2 of a two-part series on how media organisations can redesign their operating models to deliver sustainable growth through organisational alignment. You can read Part 1 here.

When the landscape shifts, organisations must too

Media organisations are changing on multiple fronts at once. Some are now prioritising the shift from advertising-led models to reader revenue. Others are embedding AI into editorial, product and commercial workflows. Larger groups are integrating operations after mergers, simplifying portfolios or rebalancing investments towards platform defensibility.

None of these changes are simple. All are high-risk. They affect not just strategy, but structure, process, governance, technology and people. And when they are approached too lightly — or treated as a reorganisation rather than a redesign — the result is often confusion, slower execution and a business that is less aligned than before.

That is why target operating model design matters so much. It provides the blueprint for how an organisation delivers on the value it promises to audiences and customers, and therefore cannot be approached lightly.

How does FT Strategies approach target operating model design?

A strong TOM begins with a baseline understanding of how the organisation works today, where it is under strain, and what will be required to support the next phase of strategy.

At FT Strategies, we approach target operating model design by developing a baseline view on how the business is functioning today, as well as an assessment of the external environment. As with our typical approach to consulting, we start with a Discovery phase to determine the current state through a mix of data analysis, industry research and stakeholder interviews.

We then evaluate the business against the nine layers we have identified as being key to an operating model:

A brief overview of each layer shows the breadth of change that target operating model design often needs to address:

• Strategy & Governance: How are decisions made and priorities communicated?

This layer defines how strategic direction is set, how decisions and information cascade across the organisation and how leadership governs execution — ensuring alignment between vision and operations

• Financials: How is value measured and resourced?

This covers revenue streams, cost structures, budgeting and investments, providing the financial backbone that supports sustainable growth.

• Products & Services: What products or services are delivered, and how are they developed?

This focuses on the lifecycle of offerings — including product management and innovation — ensuring alignment with audience needs and business goals.

• Customers: Who is the organisation serving and how?

This includes understanding and segmenting the customer base, shaping audience engagement strategies and delivering value through content, experiences and marketing.

• Organisational Structure: How are departments, teams, and roles configured?

This looks at how people are organised — including hierarchy, accountability and team design — in order to support strategic delivery and cross-collaboration.

• Processes: How does work get done?

This captures the workflows, operational routines and decision-making mechanisms that underpin day-to-day delivery across the organisation.

• Data & Technology: What systems and insights power the organisation?

This encompasses the tools, software, data flows and analytics capabilities that enable the organisation to build, optimise and track performance of their products and services.

• People & Skills: What capabilities and behaviours are needed?

This defines the talent, competencies, leadership expectations and cultural norms that are needed to execute the strategy and evolve the organisation.

• Infrastructure: Where and how does the organisation operate?

This refers to the physical assets (such as office space, printing facilities and geographic footprint) that support delivery.

We characterise three of the layers — financials, customers, and products — as growth drivers, given their direct impact on revenue generation and cost optimisation. The remaining six are enabling layers that represent the foundational capabilities required to support and sustain growth over time.

While it’s important to assess all nine layers to build a comprehensive view of the current operating state, not all layers require equal focus during a transformation: the degree of change needed will vary by organisation and context. For instance, evaluating infrastructure may be critical for media companies operating across multiple locations, but less relevant for a single-site newsroom.

What happens after this assessment?

After Discovery, the work moves into Design and Delivery.

In Design, the task is to define the future-state operating model. This is where leadership teams make explicit choices: which capabilities matter most, what should be centralised, where decision rights should sit, how teams should interact, and what governance is needed to support execution.

In Delivery, the focus shifts to implementation. That means sequencing the change, aligning leadership around trade-offs, supporting teams through transition and ensuring that the future-state model is translated into day-to-day ways of working.

In practice, the impact of a well-designed TOM is that strategic priorities become easier to execute. It helps organisations move beyond isolated decisions — around headcount, technology, workflows or reporting lines — and instead build a model that reflects the needs of the whole business. The following example illustrates this point.

What is a successful example of operating model transformation?

The value of TOM becomes clearest when organisations use it as a practical tool for redesign. One recent FT Strategies engagement illustrates this well.

Case study: Designing a digital-first TOM for a Hungarian media group

FT Strategies supported a leading Hungarian media group, home to a diverse portfolio of news and lifestyle magazines, in defining and delivering a digital-first TOM. The goal was to future-proof the organisation by aligning its structure, processes and priorities with the demands of a rapidly evolving media landscape.

We began by assessing the current state of the organisation — analysing operational performance, evaluating current initiatives and reviewing the brand portfolio. This enabled us to prioritise and rationalise brands based on their strategic value and growth potential.

From there, we worked with leadership to:

• Redesign key processes and restructure the organisation, with an emphasis on putting data at the centre of content creation and decision-making
• Grow and reorganise the data and product teams, embedding new roles and functions within editorial to support the transition — now actively being built out
• Establish an organisation-wide “North Star” vision, giving teams a shared sense of purpose and direction across brands and functions
• Lead a newsroom transformation of their flagship digital news brand, including the creation of forward-planning workflows, structured editorial meetings, performance management systems and more robust data reporting — with plans to scale to other titles in the portfolio
• Validate and prioritise CRM and CMS system replacements, which were already on the agenda but accelerated following our support with vendor assessment

Taken together, this work did more than produce a new structure. It provided the organisation with a clear and actionable target operating model to guide its transformation, aligning strategic priorities with the capabilities, workflows and governance needed to deliver them.

For senior media leaders, the question is not whether change is needed. In most cases, that is already obvious. The question is whether that change is being approached with enough rigour. A strong TOM comes from disciplined diagnosis, thoughtful design and deliberate delivery.