Content Promotion Best Practices

Improving content promotion is the “low-hanging fruit” of the RI findings. It is easy and inexpensive to do a better job. As a consequence, many newspapers have increased the quantity and quality of their editorial refers. We’ve collected some examples that illustrate specific points, and will continue to add more as we receive them. Send us your best examples with a note on what makes them different and why they work for you.

If you have reached this gallery from a link other than the main Content Promotion page, and would like to read more about why content promotion is important to growing readership and how to improve your content promotion, click here

We will continue to add to this gallery. Send us your best examples with a note on what makes them different and why they work for you.

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Upcoming content calendars Most newspaper readers don’t read every day, so don’t know what the regular offerings are. To help readers, some newspapers run in each section a calendar of upcoming stories. We asked students at Ball State University to create prototypes to improve on the versions we had seen. Click the thumbnail to see two, one with art and one without.			Week-ahead promotion Upcoming content promotion can help increase reading frequency. One technique is the week-ahead promo that entices readers with content for each day of the upcoming week. Ball State University students created two week-ahead prototypes for us, one with art and one without.
Promotion in the section flag Content promotion can be worked into the section flag. Here are two prototypes from Ball State University students. One is a week-ahead teaser in the flag of an inside section. The second is same-day content in the Page 1 flag. Graphics and rules make it appealing and easy to read.			Single-subject promotions Creating attractive, enticing promotions for upcoming content doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming, if you create a template. Here are two, one with art and one without. Note that the typography emphasizes the content being promoted; the section is secondary. Prototypes by Ball State University Students.
Today in the news Some newspapers have devoted part or all of Page 2 to guiding readers through the newspaper. Here are three takes on the concept by Ball State University students. One is a partial-page treatment, the second is a full-page guide to news and features, the third example preserves a left-hand rail for “best bets” recommendations. The space could also be used for a columnist or other feature.			The Huntsville (AL) Times Everything in the newspaper is content: news, features, advertising and coupons. The Huntsville Times promotes a daily coupon for a free item equal or greater than the cost of the newspaper. Click on the thumbnail to see the promo and the coupon.
The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, CA Here is content promotion that is eye-catching, attractive and, above all else, done consistently. Click on the thumbnail and you’ll see that this Page 1 promotion sends readers to a section that is topped by more promotion to content inside, plus a refer to the Web site, and down the left side of the page is a refer to upcoming section content.			The Daily Telegraph (UK) UK newspapers do some of the most vibrant, well-conceived promotion. Click on the thumbnail and you’ll see the promotions on Page 1 and every section front for one day’s edition. Note how they follow a promotion plan and use a consistent visual vocabulary section-by-section. Also note that most of the promos employ faces, not things.
Sacramento Bee The Bee has the most comprehensive, integrated approach to content promotion that we have seen anywhere. Click to see how it all works together: the extensive Page 1 promotion, the color strip for upcoming content promotion that runs on the back of the A section, the daily content ad that runs inside, black and white ads for upcoming content, and beautiful color ads for upcoming special projects.			The Arizonia Republic The Republic does a thorough job of content promotion, beginning with a wide range of promotions and refers on Page 1, but also on every section front. Note how this newspaper uses a visual vocabulary that is consistent from section to section.
Pioneer Press, St. Paul, MN The Pioneer Press gives readers lots of direction on Page 1, with a rail on the left, plus big, bold refers to related stories in their legislative package. Note that the rail includes a refer to upcoming content to help drive readers from the Sunday paper into the Monday paper. The newspaper also loads its section fronts with content promotion, such as the feature front shown here. Note that rail on the section front includes cross promotions to other sections in the newspaper.			Scottsdale (AZ) Tribune The Tribune is unusual that it runs its content-promotion rail down the right-hand side of the page. Like the Arizona Republic, it employs a consistent look with right-hand rails on each section front.
Desert Sun The Desert Sun includes a big, bold promotion for upcoming content as part of its daily front page rail.			Dayton Daily News Dayton packs a lot of content promotion onto Page 1 with skyboxes, a rail, an index, refers to related stories. The rail always includes an item of upcoming content promotion.
The Star-Herald, Kosciusko, MS This small weekly newspaper demonstrates that creating an attractive rail on Page 1 is within the reach of every newspaper. Click on the link to see another example from a small daily, the Enid News & Eagle in Enid, OK.			The Scotsman, Glasgow Here’s another UK newspaper that does big, bold skyboxes on Page 1 and on its section fronts.
The Independent, London Like The Daily Telegraph and the Scotsman, this newspaper uses bold skyboxes, but note in particular the attention and care that went into writing these. The use of alliteration in the single-word hammer heads and the crisp, pithy text demonstrates a focus on using these devices to sell the newspaper that usually is missing in U.S. newspapers. Also note the additional content promotion running down the left-hand rail, including an item for upcoming content.			The Journal News, Westchester County, NY The Westchester paper publishes two distinct front pages. This is the single-copy editon with what its editor calls “super skyboxes.” The home-delivery edition has smaller, more typical content promotions. In addition to being larger, the skyboxes on this edition are written with the single-copy buyer in mind: a younger, more transient demographic with different interests from subscribers.
The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA Las Vegas Review-Journal The Patriot News, Harrisburg, PA News briefings double as expanded content promotion in these newspapers. The News Tribune and The Patriot News run theirs on page 2; the Review-Journal runs its on page 3. Note the prominent upcoming content promotion on The Patriot News’ page.			The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA The News Tribune has focused attention on promoting upcoming content. It runs a color refer in the A-section every day promoting upcoming content, and also includes upcoming content promotion items on every section front.
USA Today USA Today consistently does a good job with content promotion. Editors take nothing for granted. Note in these refers for the package of stories on the DC sniper that one of them directs readers to a related story on the same page below the refers.			House ads Click on the thumbnail to see a number of examples of good content promotion house ads from a variety of newspapers.

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