Soniya Virani

March 1, 2017
Needs Assessment Paper
The Daily Newspaper
Overview
The Daily Newspaper is a local newspaper which is majorly circulated in
Spring Hill, Tampa. It was the master idea of Mr. Jackson Olivil who
thought of bringing the local news, events, and daily happenings of the
small city on paper. The objective of the Daily Newspaper is to increase
the readership and make the readers aware of the things happening
around them.
The company started from nothing and saw immediate success. It
began to recruit people on a large scale. Various departments were
introduced within the company to enhance the performance of the
newspaper among its competitors and ultimately succeeded.

Advertisement Department

Circulation Department

Printing Department

Administrative Department
 Accounting Department

Stores Department

The Daily started in the year 2001 and has been circulating since then
to 45000 houses daily. Initially it experienced mass readership among
the communities. The organization tasted its first success in the year of
2003 and progressed further. It started expanding its wings and taking
in new employees. The Daily consisted of various sections and
departments that had their role and contribution to the success of the
paper. The following is a list of what the company was divided into and
what their role was.
 The Editorial Department has writers, journalist who report to the
editor and the editor in chief.
 Advertisement Department looks after the adverts that go into
the newspaper.
 Circulation Department takes care of the flow of the newspaper
daily.
 Printing Department consists of people who dive into the task of
compiling data to newspaper format.
 Job allotment, promotion, training of staff is what comes under
the administrative department.
 Financial Department is completely responsible for all the
finances of the company.
  The Stores Department looks after the storage and maintains
records of the raw material available and any additional
requirement.

Rationale
Current Situation
In the year 2006, Daily saw a decline in the circulation and in the
number of subscriber and sales.
The board of trustees and investors were curious to know the reason
for the tremendous decrease in sales and came up with the following
statistics:
 A drop of 29% in sales was observed
 18000 individuals unsubscribed
Following the statistics, the performance gap within the organization
was observed as listed below:
 The editorial department has not been able to come up with fresh
content for target audience
 The increase in the use of technology has affected the sales
tremendously
Ideal Situation
Increase the sale and improve the quality of writing which caters to the
residents of Spring Hill.
Feasibility
Available Resources
The Daily was started by Mr. Olivil and once the company took off he
started to hire experienced editors, advertisers, for various
departments. The experience available at present with the company
amounts to 30% of cost.
Organization culture
Each department in the company is interrelated and the final product is
due to the coordination of each department with each other. To
determine the problem, direct observation of employees, assessment
of work samples, will prove to be helpful. The organization and all its
employees will be supportive of the assessment.
Available Data
All available data will be used to fulfill the responsibility of looking for
the problem and applying the required solutions.
Cost/Benefit
Data will be collected through questionnaires, emails and online
surveys which will be send out to subscribers and unsub scribers along
with the future target audience.
A professional ID will be hired to collect the data and come up with plan
to fill the gaps within the organization. The ID team leader will have 2
associates which will help him/her with the data collection and the
needs assessment will range from 4 months. The estimated cost will
include all the travel expenses.
Instructional Designer along with the team will work for 5 hours per day
and charge $38 per hr.
$38 X 5 = $190 X 3 = $ 570 per day.
The job will be conducted within 4 months for 5 hours each day
80 days X $ 570 = $45600
The estimated cost of the needs assessment will come up to $ 45600
which will include data collection, travel expenses and identifying the
gaps within the organization thoroughly.

The Plan
 Objective
 To come with a needs assessment plan for the company
 To determine the gap within the organization
 To determine the company’s vision, mission
 To identify the current situation of the company
 To determine the difference between What Is and What
Should Be of the company by considering all the affecting
factors
 To identify the solution to the gap
 Implement the final solution

Target Audience
The group of ID professionals will focus on the employees and the
employers of the company. The first group will consist of the
performers which will include all the employees of the departments.
The second group will include the administrators or the decision takers
of the company.
Sampling Method
Stratified Sampling method will be used to warrant the inclusion of
various customer groups of the paper- daily readers, subscribers, and
the unsubscribed readers. Random Sampling will be used to collect data
from potential readers.

Data Collection Strategy

In-Depth Interviews: All the heads of department and important
position holders in the company will be interviewed on a one to one
basis. This group will include the board of trustees, head of each
department, investors.
Direct Observation of Work: Employees will be observed on a daily to
determine any communication falter, any mishandling of the staff by
the HOD (Head of Department).
Questionnaire: Questionnaire will be developed and send out to the
members of all the departments pertaining to the comfortability level
of the company, the work environment.
Survey: Three survey will be send out to the three-target group. The
daily readers, the subscribed and the unsubscribed. A separate survey
will be send out to new potential readers pertaining to their
expectations from the paper.
Instruments and Protocols
Instruments: Questionnaires and surveys will be developed for the
various target groups keeping in mind the requirement of each group.
Along with the questionnaire, a letter will be send out explaining the
purpose of the study and how important the role of the receiver is in
determining the problems. In addition to this, the documents,
observations, interviews conducted by the ID team will be used to its
maximum potential to keep company working smoothly.
Protocols: The ID team will work along with the director of the
company and the HOD of the various departments in order to ensure a
smooth functioning of the process. Interviews will be conducted with
the approval of the director and the interviewee. No data will be
collected without the approval of the director and the letters will be
sent out with his/her permission and signature.

Implement Process
The needs assessment will be conducted over a period of 4 months and
the following steps will be taken in order to complete the assessment.
 Complete the preliminary task which will include meeting with
board of trustees, investors and the director of the company.
Examining the information and the data that the company might
have already collected and determining the steps needed to be
taken for the initialization of the assessment.
 Develop various questionnaires and surveys for the target group.
 Questionnaires targeting the various employees of the company
will be developed keeping in mind the questions that are specific
to each group.
 Internal questionnaire (for conduction in-depth interviews)
 Four online surveys (one each for the four-target group)
 Letter will be drafted to be sent out along with the questionnaires
and a deadline will be set for the return.
 Conduct interviews with the focus groups.
 Sent out follow up letters for non-returned surveys and questions.
 Write a summary, key findings and include recommendations
along with cost pertaining to the application of solutions for the
organization.