Dot: How Can Experimentation With Better Journalism Scale In India?

Aniruddha Jena, Shubham Sharma

Product #:W47083

Supplier:Ivey

Discipline:Entrepreneurship, Strategy

Setting:India, 2025

Details:Case (PDF) • 13 pages • 2026-01-23

Subjects:

Value propositions

Industries:

Information technology and telecom sector

Your Price:

$9.71

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The founder and chief executive officer of Dot—a subscription-based digital news platform focused on providing a single in-depth explainer story daily—faced a critical decision about the company’s growth strategy. The feedback from users was mixed. Some expressed a desire for more content and daily news, while other users strongly preferred Dot’s minimalist approach. The founder now had to decide how to scale Dot without compromising its founding principles. Should Dot expand its offerings to include new formats, languages, and audiences to accelerate growth? Or should it focus on deepening engagement with its existing subscriber base to preserve loyalty, trust, and editorial integrity?

Learning Objectives

This case is suitable for both undergraduate and graduate degree programs for full-time and executive-level participants, and can be used in entrepreneurship and strategic management courses. For an entrepreneurship course, the case can be used to cover modules such as start-up growth strategies and communicating the value proposition. In strategic management courses, it can be used in modules such as growth strategy and organizational capabilities for scaling organizations. After working through the case and assignment questions, participants will be able to do the following:

Understand the concept of a core value proposition and evaluate how it helps an organization position itself effectively within a competitive market.
Analyze the scalability and sustainability of the business model of a subscription-based platform.
Analyze how organizations can maintain trust among users while pursuing growth strategies.
Evaluate strategic growth options available to organizations and the trade-offs involved in scaling offerings.