Question: List the major steps you have taken in the last four years to increase readership. Please organize your response under four headings: content, brand, service, culture.

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Aiken Standard (SC)
Daily Circulation: 13,364
Sunday Circulation: 14,066

Have made great strides in obtaining and printing as much local news as possible. We get into publication local news that no one else in our area has – from the major breaking news stories to the honor lists for the local elementary schools.



Akron Legal News (OH)
Daily Circulation: 700

We added an editorial section to our newspaper, which previously only published legal notices.



Altus Times (OK)
Daily Circulation: 4,749
Sunday Circulation: 4,749

Several new features have been introduced this year in the last three months or will begin soon, including "A Day in the Life..." "Volunteer Spotlight," "Places to be in 2003," "Collector's Corner," and a regular weekly food theme page.

A quality control program was implemented in advertising to cut down on mistakes. Checklist is followed to monitor ad through its sale, insertion, creation, proofing, and billing.



Anchorage Daily News (AK)
Daily Circulation: 69,607
Sunday Circulation: 85,944

Redesigned the main news sections.

Standardized the order of sections and overall packaging.

Redesigned the weekly entertainment section.

Promote coming content in multiple places every day.

Grew sales of small ads to small advertisers, improving the mix of ad content.



Anderson Independent-Mail (SC)
Daily Circulation: 38,576
Sunday Circulation: 44,194

Started a Local News section.

Developed a community calendar with an online component.

Started a locally written business column that incorporates investment advice with a humorous slant.

Started a weekly "Fifteen minutes with…" Q&A feature in lifestyle, business and sports that focuses on "ordinary people."

Started a weekly reader-feedback Sports column.

Launched a reader participation Book Club with monthly discussion groups on specific books led by local facilitators.

Developed a Teen Issues panel that focuses and reports on teen subjects and trends among teens.

Instituted "best practices" in obituaries.

Started "He said, she said" local Q&A feature that incorporates photos and comments on timely issues in "man on the street" style.

Launched "My Health" reader participation health improvement club (with medical community support) that invites readers to participate in a health improvement program that tracks and reports on exercise habits, diet and weight results. The program includes monthly report meetings (weigh-ins) and local speakers on health- related topics.

Added reporter e-mail addresses and telephone numbers to all local news stories.



Atlanta Journal Constitution (GA)
Daily Circulation: 460, 672
Sunday Circulation: 620,782

Conducted first Readership/Content Study since the mid-90s. The results of this study, returned to us early this year, provide a benchmark to measure future progress. We now have a clear indication of which content areas are strengths for us and where we are weak. We also have a better sense of where we can have the most impact with readers and are using this information to help set content development priorities.

Launched daily @Issue, three pages of daily opinion, op-ed and opposing viewpoints. We made this change last year and received overwhelmingly favorable reader response. The pages are more reader interactive and work hard to bring varying viewpoints to an issue.

Launched Atlanta & the World, a stand-alone Wednesday section focusing on metro Atlanta's growing international flavor and its business, political and cultural ties around the globe. The section began a year and a half ago and already scored well in the Readership Study mentioned above.

Launched AccessAtlanta and Movies & More, our new Thursday-Friday entertainment section lineup, in April of this year. This new combination replaced our Friday, broadsheet Weekend Preview section, whose readership was aging and beginning to slip. AccessAtlanta (tab, Thursday) is aimed at a 25-39 year-old audience, a segment that in large part was not reading Weekend Preview. Movies & More (broadsheet, Friday) is directed at a more general audience and allows us to emphasize movies to an event greater extent.

AccessAtlanta.com was re-launched in tandem with the new print sections as an all-entertainment, all-the-time source for the best things to do in metro Atlanta. The site includes extensive event and dining databases.

Redesigned 1A and section front teases earlier this year to put more emphasis on the most interesting, unexpected or reader oriented content rather than simply the most important news that didn't make the front page. We emphasized the importance of good, compelling writing in these teases and have actually gotten reader e-mails complimenting the wordsmithing. Our section front teases also carry daily references to online content.

Greater emphasis on local obits and the creation this year of searchable online obituaries and online tribute/memorial pages through partnership with legacy.com. The recent death of former Mayor Maynard Jackson proved the power of these online tributes - we received thousands of postings.

Redefining our Sunday lifestyle section. This section has evolved from Dixie Living, focusing on Southern news and culture to Sunday Living, a more general interest section containing fashion, relationship advice, food, lifestyle and hobbies. The conversion was gradual since 1996 and finished with a redesign and re-launch last year. The updated design and content have paid off, readership of that section is up 7 percent overall since '96 and nearly 10 percent in the last two years.

Emphasis on high school sports. An effort begun last year in our Sports department with the reallocation of manpower and space to better cover this topic continues today with our most aggressive planning yet for tackling the fall football season. Anecdotally, reader feedback has been very positive. We also had an uptick in Sunday Bulldog sales last year with the inclusion of beefed-up high school football pages.



Austin American-Statesman (TX)
Daily Circulation: 183,288
Sunday Circulation: 233,608

Emphasize content. We have looked for innovative ways to tell stories- from new, brief story forms to one major 16-page special section titled "Chasing Hope" on the life of burn victim, Jacqueline Saburido.

Promote content.

Cross promotions. Last year we began a much more vigorous effort to tease to stories from Page 1 as well as our online site, Statesman.com. Likewise, Statesman.com teases aggressively to the print edition.

In-house promotion. As a result of the Readership Survey and other research, our promotions department created a campaign of ads to 1. Promote the improvements of our 2002 redesign (more easily navigated, better packaging) 2. Promote the content of the paper, section by section and 3. Promote the three choices for news distribution - print, online or our electronic edition. Promoting our strengths in print - that was the goal, along with greatly increasing online promotion.



The Bakersfield Californian (CA)
Daily Circulation: 71,495
Sunday Circulation: 82,718

Began tracking RBS via our annual readership survey conducted by American Opinion Research. Instituted changes in content, page layout, etc. per RI recommendations. Hired Readership Editor.



The Baytown Sun (TX)
Daily Circulation: 11,545
Sunday Circulation: 11,265

Hired a new managing editor who redesigned the paper to emphasize community coverage.

Underwent an API evaluation of content and appearance and implemented those recommendations.

Sought local columnists for regular publication.

Redesigned the flag to include line art of the area's most significant landmark to help create a "sense of place." (also brand)

Included consistent messages inviting reader participation with news tips, letters to the editor and guest commentary, calendar items, photos, etc.

Initiated regular in-house training for newsroom and budgeted for industry training opportunities. Work more closely with reporters to improve the clarity, organization and impact of their writing.

Continuous study of best practices at similarly sized papers.

Purchased software and trained copy desk to seek every opportunity to employ graphics, typography and photography as aids to story presentation.



Beaver County Times (Beaver, PA)
Daily Circulation: 42,778
Sunday Circulation: 48,875

Reorganized and redesigned.



Brattleboro Reformer (VT)
Daily Circulation: 11,655

Added 4 color section fronts.

Started community profiles. Features about everyday citizens in Windham County

Focus on local, local, local.

Incorporated weekly Photo page and teamed up with local historical society to promote section.



Bucks County Courier Times (Levittown, PA)
Daily Circulation: 67,094
Sunday Circulation: 73,252

Increased zoning of news to reflect communities.

Began a story obituary daily.

Added two local columnists.

Developed a series of reader advisory groups.

Expanded coverage to neighboring areas, outside existing circulation boundaries.

Pumped up topical coverage by using an existing advertising jacket.

Expanded "community coverage" to a weekly section, appearing each Friday. This section now includes most listings and offers community groups another "in" to the newspaper, where they can submit photos and other information, including community sports, etc.

Conducting audits of beats covered by reporters to measure diversity and variety in coverage.

Expanded regional coverage with the edition of a sports enterprise writer.

Target nontraditional advertisers

Added "Deal of the Day" coupon promotion



The Buffalo News (NY)
Daily Circulation: 223,957
Sunday Circulation: 306,102

Advertising Content: Created new advertising products including post-it notes, ROP zoning by geography and Sunday color comics gatefolds and spadeas.

Editorial Content: Weekly religion page, weekly profiles of engaged couples ("I do, I do"), print more reader letters about arts coverage, twice a month we print a letter from the editor, more go and do information in our weekly entertainment section, an easier to use TV book and we added the Wall Street Journal pages to our Sunday business section. Promotional Content: Aggressive in house promotion from daily to Sunday and Sunday to daily.



Burlington Free Press (VT)
Daily Circulation: 50,203
Sunday Circulation: 60,264

Include more diversity in our coverage to represent a broader range of faces and voices - including young readers and especially above the fold.

Increased the number of local news stories by offering more briefs and writing tighter stories.

Provide consistent same-day and "coming up" content promotion as part of news hole.

Expanded our "outdoor" coverage on Thursday and Sunday to meet the unique needs of our market.

Developed a "rail" and call-out boxes to drive readership throughout the paper.

Developed a partnership with a local television station to promote next day content in the evening news.

Launched an online news product in 2000, developed Web Extras and cross promoted online readership.

Expanded online entertainment coverage in 2003 and used news hole to drive traffic online for more info.

Localized the business section and provided more local faces and careers info, also put careers up online.



The Capital (Annapolis, MD)
Daily Circulation: 45,538
Sunday Circulation: 48,730

More front page stories on hot-button issues like health, fitness, consumer news. More fact boxes, glances, summaries as new entry points. More in-depth news stories, but shorter routine, for-the-record stories. More news digests. More quotes from regular people as opposed to the standard, always-quoted news sources.



Cleburne Times-Review (TX)
Daily Circulation: 7,447
Sunday Circulation: 7,447

Expanding coverage area to include more county news.

Running photos of ordinary people doing ordinary things.

Conducting more "Man on the Street" interviews.

Increasing number of opinion pages from two to about six or seven per week.

Creating more specialty pages in the daily product directed at targeted reader groups.

Developing and designing more monthly, quarterly and annual special sections targeting specific reader groups and highlighting specific events.



Clinton Herald (IA)
Daily Circulation: 12,254

We have increased our story count on the front page from what had been as low as three stories to now six. We have included a one-column rail on the left side that includes photos and teasers to inside pages. We have included a teaser in the rail that details a story that will be published the next day. We also tease within stories to related stories inside. We include more lifestyle features as space permits. We have changed our obit format to include more information and offer a non-paid and paid format. Have included much more court record information, building permit and property transfer information. People were very interested in having the latter information. We have created a Things To Do page on Wednesdays that lists area cities and what is going on there. This is go and do information. We break out sidebars and info boxes wherever possible to direct readers so they can learn more. We use our editorial page to interact with readers by asking them questions about what they want. Revamped the comics page to include daily quotes, a joke and people and entertainment news.



Corsicana Daily Sun (TX)
Daily Circulation: 7,079
Sunday Circulation: 7,079

The Bubba rule (inclusion of the views of at least one non-official person in every institutional story)

Feature style lead and stories

Self promotion of next day content



The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
Daily Circulation: 217,396
Sunday Circulation: 282,072

We have done a number of things, but the most significant would be creation of a Health & Fitness section, expansion of business coverage with a strong emphasis on local and efforts by the Features Department to attract young readers.



Craig Daily Press (CO)
Daily Circulation: 2,817

Complete re-focus of Saturday edition to feature agriculture, 4-H news and to touch a segment of our readership that has helped to shape our community.

Moffat County Profiles - weekly profiles of an individual or group who, through their contributions to our community, make our county a better place to live.

Addition of daily history photo and information courtesy of the local museum.

Addition of front-page refers so readers do not have to dig for info.

Incorporation of icons to provide immediate recognition of important stories/issues.

Commitment to coverage of the small events that make our community special.

Chamber Connection - a monthly section that focuses on the business community and the issues it faces.



The Crescent-News (Defiance, OH)
Daily Circulation: 17,615
Sunday Circulation: 18,524

Concentrate on getting as many local names in the newspaper as possible via legal news, high school sports, school news.



Crossville Chronicle (TN)
Circulation: Three issues weekly: Tues: 19,000; Wed: 8,500; Fri: 8,500

We actively solicit story and feature ideas.

We semi-redesigned our look, eliminating info box at the bottom of page 1, installing a rail where readers know they can find very important announcements and meeting notices that affect their lives. This is the new home for those small but important tidbits.

We uncluttered our sky boxes, reducing the number to four, one of which lists all the names of the persons in the obituaries for that issue. A second box is our "Good Day" person which is popular and a conversation piece amongst our readers. Good Day persons find out first hand just how many of their neighbors read the Chronicle and saw their picture.

One sky box features a pic and three line subhead referring to the sports pages.

One sky box features a pic and a three line subhead referring to an inside feature or story found inside.

Started using info or go to boxes sunk inside body copy giving a who, what, where and when capsule for those who don't want to read the entire story.

Seeking out more stories about human nature, the frailties of humanity and plain old fashioned people stories.

Added survey items that are list of such things as top Video rentals, top music hits, top movies for the week, etc., and added a Hollywood based column for those wanting more entertainment.

In short, we give people what they need to know but we want to give them what the want to know as well, and leave them feeling good about the time they spent reading the Chronicle.



Cullman Times (AL)
Daily Circulation: 10,827
Sunday Circulation: 11,378

Added profiles of students and community people in brief, boxed format. We ask all participants similar questions (favorite food, favorite movie, person they admire most).

Improved Sunday paper by ensuring centerpiece and enterprise pieces complete with graphics.

Added a thrice-weekly "Get to Know" feature profiling a community person with whom the public comes into contact, such as a clerk, a government worker, etc.

Worked harder to include real people in stories, often in lead and as examples of the subject of the piece.

Added more briefs pages, both wire and local.

Added a second feature on Lifestyle cover.



Cumberland Times-News (MD)
Daily Circulation: 30,555
Sunday Circulation: 32,836

New Today's Family magazine (for women, young readers).

New Slice of Life weekly section (for young readers, women).

Total redesign of newspaper.



Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA)
Daily Circulation: 73,209
Sunday Circulation: 71,492

Developed a whole new newspaper in October of 2001 using the eight key findings.

Built the "Making a Difference" theme and it helps us in our mission.

On time delivery performance in production assisting our customer delivery.

Much more open culture with all employees. It varies, of course, by department. New management doing good overall job here.



Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)
Daily Circulation: 33,021
Sunday Circulation: 40,834

In-paper promotion-same day and upcoming; CU Buffs game day posters; people vs. process news; photojournalism devoted to people; booking based on sections (news, local, N&W, Sports, Biz, Features); Volunteer task force analyzing/auditing content.



The Daily Courier (Forest City, NC)
Daily Circulation: 9,504
Sunday Circulation: 9,504

Page One always completely local.



Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, MA)
Daily Circulation: 18,445

We implemented Partnership in Readership recommendations for increased emphasis on local stories, people stories and lifestyle news, shorter stories and more enterprise stories.

We tripled the number of process color pages with new press units.



Daily Journal (Franklin, IN)
Daily Circulation: 17,228

Plan and implement Accent section changes

Publish third section – Accent/classified – Monday-Friday

Purchase additional digital camera equipment

Promote next day content on front page



The Daily News (Longview, WA)
Daily Circulation: 22,350
Sunday Circulation: 21,704

We've become more people oriented, telling stories through people, and tried to get more local names and faces into the news columns. We also have made the paper easier to navigate, by anchoring specific content to the same places in the paper everyday.



The Daily News (Rhinelander, WI)
Daily Circulation: 5,033
Sunday Circulation: 5,557

Added a locally written food column.

Added a NASCAR page.

Added a front page "take note" column.

Expanded Outdoors Page columnists.

Enhanced our NIE program.



Daily Press (Newport News-Hampton, VA)
Daily Circulation: 92,434
Sunday Circulation: 115,985

Make the paper easy to navigate.

A gradual redesign that began in March 2002 achieved continuity in section flags, better labeling of content, a more open look and feel in Life and Sports, and a bolder design framework for A, Local News and Money & Work.

We use more entry point boxes and refer elements to related stories throughout the paper.

We use more editorial space for same-day and upcoming content promotion. Every section front has a "tray" that tells readers what's inside the section. With Money & Work inside the Local News section except on Sundays, we use part of the Local News flag to refer to Money & Work. Most days, we also use a "Coming Tomorrow" element (with photo) at the bottom of every section front.

We more often "book" the front news section to provide clearer designation of world news, national news, expanded treatments, etc. Better space planning also allows better use of photos inside the sections.

We adopted a "news feature" design treatment that differentiates those stories from other news on the page by typeface and layout.

We anchored "fun" stories in Sports (page 2), as we had already done in the A section. Local News and Life are to follow.

We adopted a Franklin headline face as part of the news mix, which gives a higher count and more bang with bold sans serif contrasting with the regular serif head face. It draws readers to the important story.

Increase certain kinds of content.

More feature stories. By reconfiguring our daily features section, discarding the strict themes for each day and slightly increasing features newshole, we freed the section to run more of the kinds of stories the Readership Institute said readers want. (We didn't throw away the themes, though, as our own reader research identifies health, family, faith, etc. as key content categories. We still label them well on the appropriate days, but we no longer let them take over the entire front.)

More feature style. Our staff-written stories take a feature approach more often.

Popular culture. Our feature (Life) covers frequently explore pop culture trends and issues.

More short bites. We added a "Pop Culture 101" box on the Life cover daily – a fact and visual, not a story. In the Money & Work section, we added a daily "By the numbers" data bit, such as the number of containers moved through the port of Hampton Roads last year.

Fashion. We use more wire stories about fashion (having no fashion staff writer).

Global relations. We use fewer remote disaster stories and more explanatory stories about national and international events and issues.

General and personal business news. We increased newshole slightly to reach proportions suggested by the Impact Study. More important, we recast the Money & Work section to include a steady diet of financial commentary and personal finance advice every day.

Local crime and courts. We try to zone crime and courts stories so they play well where they are local but are not overplayed in other communities. National crime stories have a higher hurdle to be in the paper at all.

More intensely local news.

Neighborhood crime. Intensely local crime logs are now run in suburban zones. Expanding to main cities is desirable but a space and staff issue.

Special Occasions. Adding to our local obituary story, the news assistant staff now selects stories to highlight from other reader submissions in Special Occasions, such as anniversaries, weddings, etc.

Local-local entertainment. We've added a "Weekend" feature to the local-local cover of our community news sections, to highlight zoned entertainment or events that wouldn't make a splash in the all-runs Ticket entertainment/weekend section.

Small business. The Money & Work section features small businesses every week.

More people-oriented local news. We more often us a feature style in local news stories, especially government and politics.



The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA)
Daily Circulation: 30,281
Sunday Circulation: 34,234

Redesigned newspaper to create all-local front section and second section devoted to national, international news. Created editor-definable brief box formats for use as unanchored elements.



Daily Sentinel (Rome, NY)
Daily Circulation: 14,810

Redesign of newspaper.



The Daily Times (Farmington, NM)
Daily Circulation: 17,738
Sunday Circulation: 19,328

Focus on local news and feature style of writing. Less focus on crimes and disasters across the nation and world unless it has local impact. Finding a local angle on world and national news has been very successful. Reduced the concentration of coverage of wars, crimes, fires, etc. More straightforward, less sensationalized coverage. More people and school features, free funeral notices and daily stories about people in the community who have died recently. Obits are now categorized by community with birth and death date under the name as in a tombstone. We redesigned page one to add entry points, including above-the-flag teaser lines and photo teasers on the rail. We also launched a go-and-do feature each week in our entertainment section along with music CD reviews, etc.



Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
Daily Circulation: 100,582
Sunday Circulation: 117,854

We have created a "readership committee" made up of marketing and editorial staff members to research and suggest content changes based on the ASNE readership study, plus our own MORI research data.



Deming Headlight (NM)
Daily Circulation: 3,541

We've changed to a modular design making it easier for readers to get into the newspaper.



The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA)
Daily Circulation: 46,497
Sunday Circulation: 49,171

Redesigned the newspaper to add more entry points and make it easier to navigate and more inviting. We transitioned to a 7-column format on the front page to make it newsier and increase story count up front.

Reconceived and redesigned the features section to appeal more to a younger audience. The front cover contains more, shorter topics with bolder visual presentation. Inside, we added daily themed pages, like relationships & family, fashion, and arts & entertainment, to give readers the variety they wanted in features.

Created a daily Communities page to give readers more "good" news and to cover "local, local" news and events.

Created Healthy Living and Food & Drink weekly bonus specials to give readers more tailored information and advertising on high-interest topics. Each of these sections gives readers a specific reason to read on the days they are published.

Created Snapshots, a weekly 6-page section filled entirely with photographs of local community events and everyday life shots that you typically don't find in newspapers.

Redesigned TV Book from a quarterfold to a tabloid with more entertainment highlights, more channel line-ups and programming information, and easier to read grids.

Redesigned thedesertsun.com to make online navigation easier. The home page is designed to quickly get visitors to the wealth of news, information and advertising content on the site.

Redesigned and retooled Weekend entertainment to include more things to do, an anonymous restaurant review and more extensive restaurant listings. The redesign also included more information on things to do throughout Southern California, not just locally, something we learned was important to young adults in the Palm Springs market.

Expanded the national and international news report in response to reader feedback. We set aside two half pages in the A-section to do more in-depth stories.



The Detroit News and Free Press (MI)
Daily Circulation: 547,506
Sunday Circulation: 738,709

Many improvements have been made to the products, including: more business and personal finance coverage in both newspapers, new sports features to capitalize on the popularity of the Detroit Red Wings, the launch of community editions across the metro market, a revised TV Book on Sunday, and the addition of a second major coupon package on Sunday.

Marketing efforts to promote content improvements, include:

Improved subscriber targeting through census-based market analyses.

Telemarketing and sales crew scripts that appeal to lifestyle and consumer behavior.

Increased use of direct mail and alternate sales efforts.

Increased exposure through expanded kiosk sales.

Strategic sampling of all products through sampling to select zip codes.

Improved single copy promotions and enhanced relationships with 8000 retail outlets, especially large chains.

Award-winning Newspaper-In-Education programs.

Utilizing primary research to better understand our market and readers.

East Valley Tribune (Mesa-Scottsdale-Tempe, AZ)
Daily Circulation: 96,221
Sunday Circulation: 80,192

Revamped lifestyle section to make it locally actionable and focused on themes that have high RBS impact - fashion, health, travel, food, family, weekend go and do information.

Redesigned the paper to make it easy to use. Right column A1 rail not only provides quick read on the news but helps readers navigate through the paper. Since local news is in the front part of the A section followed by nation/world news, the Tribune has an unfamiliar organization to many of the new people who moved into our communities. - -We also changed body and headline types, with readability being the leading criterion for selecting body type.

Under the ordinary people category, we launched:

A three times a week "Friends and Neighbors" column designed to showcase the stories and achievements of everyday people. (We don't like to call them ordinary people.)

A Connections page every Sunday aimed at recognizing and bringing together people who help those in need.

A "Success" feature on p2 of our Sunday business section where we profile a business person whose success can be instructive to others in business. This brought into the paper everyday business people whose names would rarely show up on a source or contact rolodex.

While keeping up with all four major league sports teams and a Pac-10 university athletic program, our sports staff moved high school sports into a higher priority, publishing Varsity Extra section on high school football Fridays. Prep sports is not a high readership topic, but it helps us establish closer ties to our community and brings youth images into the paper.

We redefined who we are and who we served in every section to keep our focus on the East Valley and not Phoenix.

We created an open page in our nation/world section that focused on helping readers understand the significance of a major national or international story. This was in response to a reader survey that showed we needed to balance our local report with a better national and world report.

We promote to future and inside stories off of section covers. And we've just begun a program to promote editorial content in space created by odd shaped ads or space that filler ads would previously have filled.



The Edmond Sun (OK)
Daily Circulation: 10,415
Sunday Circulation: 10,415

An e-mail database of volunteer readers has also proved to be popular, with the managing editor sending out questions twice weekly and printing the responses on the Viewpoints page. The volume of submitted Letters to the Editor has increased dramatically.

The weekly buzz magazine has been a hit with the community in its coverage of local arts and entertainment events. The section has already increased from 12 to 16 pages, and the ad count continues to grow.

Our bi-monthly Food page is becoming more popular as The Sun concentrates on showcasing local cooks in its coverage.

The focus of our health and science coverage is gradually switching to publishing more news you can use. In other words, we're trying to print stories that directly impact readers. We've been running a monthly Q&A series with the local hospital that features plenty of practical health information. We hope to include more weekly bits of state-of-the-art health and science briefs and focus less on physicians and more on readers.

We implemented a weekly crime-tracker for Sundays. This is a map with the police blotter to show where crime occurs in Edmond.

Increase go and do boxes: We are averaging the daily amount of breakout boxes over a previous week's time period. The goal is to increase the number of breakout boxes by 25 percent over five months, with a monthly goal of a 5 percent increase from each previous month starting with the baseline of the first week measurement. If the staff meets the overall goal of 25 percent by the close of November, we'll throw a Christmas party for the newsroom.

Terminology: We're requiring that reporters compile a standing text file of terminology information that could be used as breakout information to cut and paste with daily stories. Reporters brainstorm about their beats and think about terms that they take for granted that readers understand. Then the reporters write blurbs explaining these terms and save them in NewsEdit for editors to use with stories. We're measuring each reporter¹s progress on the second Tuesday of every month for six months starting in June. The managing editor takes each month's winner to a lunch of their choice.



Enterprise-Journal (McComb, MS)
Daily Circulation: 11,492
Sunday Circulation: 12,083

We had a consultant come in and redesign the paper in late 2002. In doing this we looked at our content and added several things to the paper, such as a second Outdoors page and a Religion page on Sunday.



Evansville Courier & Press (IN)
Daily Circulation: 68,867
Sunday Circulation: 96,506

Dramatically increased use of in-paper promotion, especially what's coming tomorrow and next week.



Fort Collins Coloradoan (CO)
Daily Circulation: 28,501
Sunday Circulation: 34,954

Top Three Reader Targets For Improvement: Men age 25-45; Occasional Readers 25-34; Newcomers – adults who have lived here for three years or less.

Dramatically improved overall design with more local enterprise, more breaking news, more maps and multiple entry points on 1A and other section fronts to better target readers. We've focused on improving the depth and consistency in four high local interest news areas – the management of growth (with a focus on I-25 and its impact on Fort Collins), the business of learning, the environment/water resources and things to do – outdoors/recreation.

In Business, we launched a weekly Business Edge section on Mondays in February 2003. Key features include local cover stories, weekly regional snapshot of economic indicators on 2E, profile of a company that makes a product locally on 6E and a local column known as "Leading Edge" that rounds up business expansions, moves, etc.

In Sports, we've strengthened Denver pro-sports coverage, CSU, preps and added more hockey coverage, including a year-long series leading up to Colorado Eagles opener this fall.

In Features, section fronts are more sophisticated and colorful including a yearlong series on a young couple working to eat healthier and get in shape. We also produced a Northern Colorado Health Guide in May 2003, which includes a physicians' directory covering everything from allergies to urology. Ticket, our weekly Entertainment guide, also has been tweaked to make it more reader-friendly for key target groups with more listings, briefs including things to do in Denver.

Launched a weekly NASCAR page to target more male readers and that has been shifted to regional hockey focus now that there's a CHL franchise in our market.

Launched Best in the Business, an annual magazine that allows readers to vote on who's the best in key business categories. This concept is being expanded in 2003 to include more small business and leader of the year. A diverse panel of business leaders selected winners and winners were honored at an awards lunch.

We launched Go! Magazine in spring 2003 and also will produce a winter issue

We improved online content. We've expanded number of breaking news postings so that we're averaging more than 10 a month, added online poll questions at least weekly and added a daily Coloradoan e-newsletter. We launched an e-newsletter in August 2003 and more than 90 subscribe to the daily e-newsletter. Online site has been enriched with photo galleries of pets, Colorado Eagles, Denver Broncos and Larimer County Fair. We've also posted dozens of extras on hard-hitting topics like Drought, West Nile Virus, Chronic Wasting Disease and the Colorado Legislature.

We've expanded convergence partnerships with local radio and KUSA – Channel 9 – our TV convergence partner. Our CSU reporter appears weekly during the football season with the CSU Coach and sports reporters appear on local radio as does our editorial page editor.
We've improved classified section design and more reader-entry points with features like News of the Weird and Today in History with local breakouts. This page is a hit with teachers in local schools. Hot Off the Press or first-day classified ads have since been moved into the classified section with a special logo so that they stand out more.

We converted our annual community calendar to a glossy format, and asked readers to send in pet photos for 2003 issue. It was such a hit with more than 300 photos submitted and overflow led to five online galleries of pet photos.

We understand that readers also have interests outside our core newspaper and there are niche info opportunities. That's why we launched Make & Model, a multi-platform used car initiative that includes a weekly free distribution magazine, online ads and in-paper ads in the Coloradoan. About 10,000 copies are distributed in Northern Colorado.



Gainesville Daily Register (TX)
Daily Circulation: 5,814
Sunday Circulation: 5,814

Go and do stories.

Added "Bubba" quotes.

Front page refers.

Added movie reviews.



The Gleaner (Henderson, KY)
Daily Circulation: 10, 452
Sunday Circulation: 11,837

Profiled two dozen of our most frequent Opinion Page (letter) contributors (with photos), which was a big hit with readers and spawned new letter writers.

Broke out and repackaged our "What's Going On" page to give it more utility by breaking up events closer to home along with improved typography.

Added a "Fit and Healthy" page to our Thursday Variety Pack lineup.

Improved access of recreational sports and photographs (little leagues, softball, etc.) to our sports pages.

Added a food column from our corporate partner (Scripps).

Added a business section column "Sound Money" and expanded stock listings.

Added a half-page daily dedicated to pop culture, entertainment, etc.

Expanded content generally that is designed to reach 20 to 35 market.

Added a local music column.

Added a half-page full color weather map (and related) to our daily content.



Hannibal Courier-Post (MO)
Daily Circulation: 8,350

Increased amount of local coverage while reducing dependence on AP.

Spotlighted "ordinary" people, not just movers and shakers.

Increased coverage of local events and calendars of events.

Reduced number of special sections and concentrated on main product.



Herald-Banner (Greenville, TX)
Daily Circulation: 8,239
Sunday Circulation: 9,224

We have enhanced the variety of our content. We added a new section called Sunday Brunch, a feature-oriented section. It has a weekly profile of a local person with an interesting background. It also contains a page of photos of local people in every-day activities. No high-society, just regular folks doing regular things. We geographically expanded our coverage, so we offer communities within our circulation more news about their localities. We added a lot of advertising-driven content: A Friday automotive section and real estate tab, a weekly dining guide, a bridal directory (in our Sunday Brunch section), and a greater volume of local ads in general. Our biggest initiative was a complete redesign that made our paper much more "navigable" and we now have a front page rail that teases readers to stories inside our paper.



The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC)
Daily Circulation: 50,015
Sunday Circulation: 56,612

Readership Progress Report - News

Added a regular Update feature.

Added an Informed Sources box to highlight local experts.

Added Go & Do box.

Added a Steamed column that allows readers to vent.

Added a weekly Street Smarts column to alert readers to road work.

Added a Parade of Potholes feature during the winter months.

Added Healthy Living Section

Revamped Triangle Live, our entertainment magazine.

Revamped comics to add new ones.

Improved newspaper design with conversion to 50-inch web.

Refers to stories inside and next day.


Readership Progress Report - Circulation

Made regular use of rack cards and corner cards to promote special coverage, series, events, etc.

Recently surveyed product strengths (local news, local shopping info, pre-prints, etc) and used info to create subscription flyer: "Love Chapel Hill?". Also created "Love Sports?" single copy flyer and distributed at peak of basketball season.

Printed and distributed special editions for 9/11 and Duke Men's NCAA Championship.

Continue to generate, promote and distribute quality NIE features/series for schools.

Ongoing bonus delivery day program targeting weekend-only customers with special sections and new coverage.

Created major sampling program with AllTel Pavilion, delivered to non-subscribers in Southern Durham and Chapel Hill, showcasing Triangle Live entertainment guide in Friday paper.

Distributed Sunday papers to schools at end of year, promoting Classifieds as a tool for finding summer employment.

Sold sponsored newspapers featuring graduation section to Orange and Chatham high schools.

Set up delivery to local radio stations to promote special and day-to-day coverage on air.


Readership Progress Report – Advertising & Marketing

Implemented ongoing structured cross-training with all artists to enhance one another's skills.

Network with creative teams in other markets to share ideas, i.e. Greensboro.

Utilize more resources, i.e., The Spec Department, Liquid Library and Metro to pull stronger graphics, better color photographs, groupings etc. – for ads, specs, and publication design.

Utilize resources from NAA and NCPA "Best Ad Honors" and "Best Ideas" to modify effective campaigns for use in our market.

Increase use of color on specs and throughout publications to improve readership and effectiveness.

Critique sections from prior year before launching current year's sales effort to improve grouping layouts, individual ad designs, section cover, graphics, etc.

Ad Services department conducts weekly meetings to share successes and challenges pertaining to ad design.

Started a spec-of-the-month recognition award and "Wall of Fame" to showcase winning designs.

Critique other market's newspapers and various magazines regularly for design ideas, e.g., Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh.

Began tracking closing ratios for sold spec ads measuring creative effectiveness.


Readership Progress Report - News

Brand (goal is to be more useful, "on your side," smart).

Updates (see above).

Informed Sources (see above).

Steamed/Potholes/Street Smarts (see above).

Go & Do (see above).



The Houston Chronicle (TX)
Daily Circulation: 552,052
Sunday Circulation: 744,935

We've brought in a new editor to embrace the 8 Imperatives of RI.

The new editor has made sure the entire editorial department understands the principles behind the 8 RI Imperatives and has linked his 5-Year Plan editorial initiatives to those Imperatives.



Johnson City Press (TN)
Daily Circulation: 29,909
Sunday Circulation: 34,152

We've completed an editorial re-design adding several new local columnists both from our staff and outside as well as new section fronts, features, and increased our page count thus a larger news hole.



The Journal Times (Racine, WI)
Daily Circulation: 29,216
Sunday Circulation: 31,334

We significantly changed our focus to emphasize local news, discovered news and storytelling.

We added a full page of community news and listings each day of the week.

We increased the number of stories - local and wire - that focus on topics such as home, food, fashion and health.

We reshaped our sports coverage to emphasize local and youth sports rather than national and pros.

We increased 'go-and-do' information with stories.

We focused local coverage on a short list of key topics for a news agenda.

We appointed a regular local columnist to build personality for the paper.

We changed the makeup of the newspaper to make it less kinetic and, hopefully, easier to use.

We significantly increase our in-paper content promotions, both for same-day content and for upcoming content.

We established a three-day-a-week "Glad You Asked" Q&A with readers to promote reader interaction and build the newspaper's personality.

We developed prototypes - though didn't publish - brand-building content centered on The Readership Institute's recommendations for "Monitor" and "Debatable."



Kerrville Daily Times (TX)
Daily Circulation: 8,663
Sunday Circulation: 10,463

Redesigned the paper for better organization, now include community identifiers on each local story. Established separate religion section, published on Fridays. Established weekly, "In your neighborhood" feature with stories about what uncommon things common folk are doing. All promotion includes the tag line "Your newspaper." Established weekly page focused on readers aged 10-18.



Knoxville News Sentinel (TN)
Daily Circulation: 128,865
Sunday Circulation: 153,718

We asked our readers what they want in terms of content and changed our product extensively in response. These changes include:

Daily briefs in all sections.

Daily digest of the news.

Improved navigation.

More legible font.

Improved photo clarity.

Reader-generated stories. We ask readers about their favorite foods, best memory, favorite T-shirt, etc. and then run what they say with their name.

On big breaking news stories, we ask online readers to write about their experiences. For instance, after a tornado hit here recently, we asked readers to write their stories. Kind of like letters to the editor, but with a news twist instead of opinion. We run these "vignettes" as we call them, along with our reports.

"In the Know" - although we call it "Did You Know?"

Fourfold increase in non-narrative information - bits of useful information that aren't buried in long narrative stories

"Debatables" - although we call it "Focus On."

Focus on increased minority coverage.

Expanded entertainment coverage and a redesign of our entertainment tab to address issues lighter readers have, such as navigation.

Created an outdoors section of go and do information.

Created a preps section of stats for high school sports - both online and in print. A big attraction for high school students and their families.

Increased promotion of the paper.

Redesigned Classified.

We developed our Web sites into some of the best in the business.



Lancaster New Era (PA)
Daily Circulation: 43,194
Sunday Circulation: 102,339


Focus on specific types of content (high-potential topics from RI findings):

News about community & ordinary people - Both dailies have increased coverage, especially the afternoon paper.

The afternoon paper has arranged it so obituaries flow from page to page instead of jumping pages.

Politics, government, world - the afternoon paper has added a full page of summaries of national and world news on A-2.



Lincoln Journal Star (NE)
Daily Circulation: 74,586
Sunday Circulation: 83,387

Major emphasis on local-local. Reporting on schools has been increased significantly. We have also put major emphasis on our University of Nebraska Husker sports coverage. Coverage of area towns outside of our home coverage has been increased significantly.



The Manhattan Mercury (KS)
Daily Circulation: 10,125
Sunday Circulation: 11,450

Added a daily "briefing" report modeled on the readership institute's "update" concept.

Added useful entertainment-oriented weekly feature, giving people information about events coming up the following weekend.

Added weekly local personality profile called "Our Neighbors."

Added very local weekly column called "The Buzz" to get in more local chicken-dinner stuff that used to fly below the radar.

Added a question-and-answer column.



McAlester News-Capital & Democrat (OK)
Daily Circulation: 10,053
Sunday Circulation: 10,515

Increased in-paper promotion, including regular promotion of on-going features. Some promotion of upcoming news stories.

More "feature" style reporting focusing on who people are affected by events.

Increased focus on health, fashion and travel. We've added a new service which has more of these topics and, more importantly, our writers are working on more of these stories.

Development of a "Bubba" file of local people who we can (and do) call for comments on news stories.

More go-and-do stories offering details on events.



Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Daily Circulation: 232,652
Sunday Circulation: 434,023

Added several regular features with heightened local and ordinary people news.

Snapshots, anchored photo and article on ordinary local person.

Takes Five, anchored daily Q&A.

Weekly food column by prominent local chef.

Weekly question to feature section readers.

Road Warrior column on how local roads and road issues impact our lives and travels.

Increased obits and prominence.

Increased same day and upcoming editorial content promotion.

Increased signposts, prompts and refers.

Developed advertising content promotion pieces to reinforce the newspaper's position as the marketplace.



Monroe Evening News (MI)
Daily Circulation: 21,771
Sunday Circulation: 24,956

Started a "What Would It Take" series that looks at the county's thorniest issues and what it would take to fix them. Redesigned Arts & Entertainment section to emphasize complete LOCAL options. Started a weekly Your Neighbors series that seeks out "real people" and what makes them unique (example: a woman who has a mural painted on the back of her pickup showing her son in heaven; he was shot by his brother.) Started our first weekly newspaper in a growing corner of our circulation area that was resisting daily inroads because of major metro nearby. Started weekly page in the daily paper focusing on our Primary Market Area.



Montgomery Advertiser (AL)
Daily Circulation: 50,763
Sunday Circulation: 62,137

News began promoting upcoming articles, including 1A promotion of articles in other sections.

Sunday "Coming this Week" content ads began in 2002, daily "Coming Tomorrow" content ads began in 2003.

We launched a monthly Health & Fitness tab in June 2002.

Increased presence of Autauga & Elmore counties news on the front page.

Zoned our Newcomer's Guide for two distinct areas in the NDM.

Focus groups were held with 25-34-year olds for our weekly GO! Entertainment Guide.

Zoned the covers of the weekly Game Day (college football tab published during season) in the areas surrounding the colleges (Auburn, Troy State, Alabama State and Tuskegee).

Retooled the look of the business page with quick bites, graphics and Q&A profiles.

Added more news of record to the Sunday business section.

Added a How-to and Casual Friday feature to the daily business pages.

Anchored the business page to the back of the local Metro section.

Added an automotive page to the Sunday business section as well as a locally written auto column in response to Hyundai's new plant scheduled in 2004.

Expanded our growth coverage to include the new Hyundai plant.

Sent a reporter to Korea to explore Hyundai's homeland and its culture and relate that to what will happen with the new Montgomery plant.

Retooled the weekly auto racing page.

Overhauled the Lifestyle pages to include more news of interest to readers.

Expanded the Home & Garden section in Lifestyle.

Increased presence of news of interest to 25-34-year olds.

Developed content of special interest to women and 25-34-year olds.

Provided stronger stories on the Tri-County front of interest to entire area.

More Autauga & Elmore counties news above the fold on 1A (four times a week).

Advisory panels established for credibility coalition, Autauga & Elmore counties and 25-34-year-olds.

Established community advisory panels in key topic areas including business, Autauga & Elmore counties, 18-34-year-olds.

Launched an online sports huddle that features high school athletes from every school in the Tri-County area.

Begin mid-day post ups of local stories on the newspaper's Web site.

Launched a new shareholders report on the editorial page that examines how local boards and/or commissions are operating.

Increased training on watchdog journalism and incorporated more aggressive news reporting into daily and enterprise work.

Increased private school presence in K-12.

Increased news of record related to growth and development.

Posted greater quantity of targeted, local news content on the Web site.

Expanded online archives to include specialized material, such as restaurant inspections, marriage licenses, etc.

Published quarterly enterprise projects.

Increased web refers from print to online and vice versa.

Met with focus groups to learn what they wanted in K-12 and growth coverage.

More Alabama key cities above the fold on 1A (four times a week).

Higher quality, wider-interest news on Tri-County.

More enterprise.

Higher quality reporting and writing throughout.

Hiring of an online department editor.

Daily news updates. Breaking news as need.

Live posting of sports scores.

More multiple covers of Game Day.

Content revamp on FYI.

Changes to Lifestyle theme pages.

Changes to Sports theme pages.

Expanded efforts to increased readership in Autauga and Elmore counties through refinements in suburban news. Developed more news of record. Increased presence of Autauga & Elmore counties stories on 1A. Also increased presence of Autauga &Elmore counties news in other sections such as sports, business and features.

Expanded efforts to increase readership in East Montgomery. Restructured the newsroom beats to focus on business, neighborhoods, traffic and growth. Planned an east Montgomery presence everyday on the FYI page. Included more 1A and enterprise presence from east Montgomery.

Developed a reporter into a key city reporter covering the newspaper's six key cities. Increased the frequency of coverage of the six key cities.

Published enterprise on newspaper's key topics. Special emphasis on state government, race relations and K-12 education.

Improved the overall consistency and quality of the news report, especially writing and reporting.

Created market awareness of the newspaper's Web site.



New Haven Register (CT)
Daily Circulation: 81,469
Sunday Circulation: 101,374

Major reader initiatives:

New redesign.

New weekend section.

Daily people section.

New business Monday section.



The Newport Daily News (RI)
Daily Circulation: 12,565

We have increased our one-day sampling, which asks for the person to request a one-month free sample.

We have increased our NIE program.

We have started a successful crewing program.

We have stopped telemarketing.



News & Record (Greensboro, NC)
Daily Circulation: 90,432
Sunday Circulation: 110,846

Editors have formed teams to study the Readership Institute research and have developed action steps. They have added new A-section content on medicine, science, the world and other topics. They have reassigned reporters to connect closer to the community and are thinking through the new overhaul. We will get closer to the community.



The News Enterprise (Elizabethtown, KY)
Daily Circulation: 16,073
Sunday Circulation: 19,483

We have implemented the following:

Created a community news team which is responsible for collecting, organizing and paginating all submitted news and public records.

Added a recreational round-up page to capture local sports enthusiasts' activities.

Introduced Spotlight section for younger audience.

Increased locally written editorials and columns.

Better and more use of color and graphics.

Better promotion of same-day and upcoming stories and features.

Improved classified section - photos, service directory, design.

Better job grouping advertisement by category.

Better quality writing making stories more relevant to average reader.

Continuing stories, pre- and post-event for advance and follow-up. as well as writing as the stories break.



The Norman Transcript (OK)
Daily Circulation: 15,198
Sunday Circulation: 16,695

Create four employee committees to oversee cornerstones.

Implement weekly newsletter to communicate changes and other information.

Alter department head meetings to focus on management training.

Review, evaluate and implement committee recommendations (estimated 85 percent of recommendations in effect now.)

Launched Reader Focus group to evaluate newspaper.

Developed and completed job shadowing program to facilitate communication/understanding.

Completed "Employee Attitude Survey" to measure employee concerns.

Focused serious on content promotion.

Numerous content changes made.

Service is an ongoing discussion.

All initiatives and committees are employee, not management, driven.



North County Times (Escondido-Oceanside, CA)
Daily Circulation: 92,490
Sunday Circulation: 93,337

Strengthened coverage of high-impact local "bread and butter' concerns, e.g., energy crisis, transportation, homeless and educational issues, state financial crisis impacts.

Special embedded reportage of 40,000 local Marines in Iraq. Book coming.

Increased coverage of celebrations and "small town" community news published in zoned community news pages.

Increased attention to women-oriented coverage and story telling.

Expanded coverage and sensitivity to Latino community.



Norwich Bulletin (CT)
Daily Circulation: 27,916
Sunday Circulation: 32,304

Bulletin Buddy Joint Promotions: we teamed with local entertainment venues (Navigators Baseball, Arena Football, WNBA, movie theatres, etc.) to develop joint promotions targeted specifically to our key targets - young families. These promotions include poster size "baseball card" ads with two-for-one or free gift coupons attached (all coupons are branded as Bulletin Buddies), contests for cars, trips, season tix, etc. for adults, along with contests for kids (Barbie look-a-likes, junior golf, ball girl/ball boys), and free event giveaways. They also include special NIE tab sections distributed in-paper and to schools throughout the area.

All Points Bulletin Classifieds: We redesigned classifieds to appeal to young readers, and introduced editorial content into the section they go to most readily. First we brought all the classified ads into one contiguous section (vs. scattered throughout the newspaper). Fronted it with quick, easy-reading, fun content related to major classifications. Nearly every day of the week, the classified section is now a stand alone section, allowing a very colorful front page. We pulled horoscopes, the jumble and crossword into classifieds labeled Fun & Games. Finally, we added a "Happygram Billboard" to the classified front. This is a color picture and message that runs within the classified header, wishing a person a happy birthday, or other best wishes. This space can be purchased. However, whether purchased by a private party or free to an employee, this space carries a local person and message every day.

Newsroom mantra, "Local People Are Our Franchise" - posted on newsroom bulletin boards - led to refocusing of ALL local stories on people who live in the nine towns and four population centers in our target market. If reporters cover a story outside the 9/4 area - a submarine returning to Groton, a budget hearing in Hartford, a homecoming ceremony for the UConn Huskies at Storrs - they do it through the eyes of local people they find at the scene. During the recent war in Iraq, wire coverage was supplemented by local stories everyday; A daily "Voices on the Home Front" man-on-the-street feature captured the opinions of 150 readers over the war's tenure.



Observer-Dispatch (Utica, NY)
Daily Circulation: 45,916
Sunday Circulation: 53,629

Weekly Outdoors section, geared to young readers.

Redesigned weekly go/do section for younger look.

Launched new weekly Digest mailed to non-subscribers revamped weekly jobs/career section added new style and health pages to Lifestyles.

Launched new monthly health magazine.

Launched Web site; plus health-oriented Web site and running Web site.

Update home page at 2 p.m. daily with youth-oriented centerpiece.



The Olathe News (KS)
Daily Circulation: 5,789

Redesign entire paper with new graphics, etc.

Reduce AP coverage.

Increase number of local stories by shortening all stories.



The Olympian (Olympia, WA)
Daily Circulation: 37,473
Sunday Circulation: 45,336

Redesigned the entire paper for more entry points and better navigational guides, such as a column left.

Revamped daily Features and Weekend entertainment for appeal to younger adults.

Organized in-house training on beat development.

Built a Know your Community campaign to educate newsroom staff.

Created a weekly State Workers page dedicated to our largest workforce.

Created a daily page dedicated to the Outdoors, a franchise topic.

Armed reporters with cameras to shoot mugs for more faces in the paper.

Recruited reader advisory panels on initiatives or content issues to better reflect the community.

Added more local columns.

Added depth to franchise topics (outdoors/environment, state government, health care, education, things to do).

Focused initiatives on reader targets (adults under age 45 and a couple of geographic segments).



Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Daily Circulation: 256,520
Sunday Circulation: 376,878

Weekly Sunday Magazine changed to a monthly frequency and added Parade.

Launched El Sentinel and elsentinel.com, weekly bi-lingual newspaper and accompanying Web site.

Launched "Rush," a weekly focus page on extreme sports for youth.

Launched the Orlando Sentinel High School Sports Show on TV with tie-ins to newspaper sports coverage.

Launched JobXtra, a free, weekly niche pub with job listings.

Launched "Southwest", a weekly section with local news and advertising that is distributed in the fast growing Southwest corner of the Orlando market.

Launched a Wednesday help wanted section called "Working".

Launched two new columns: a business "names and faces" in our Money section and "Taking Names", a local celebrity column of people news.



Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, IN)
Daily Circulation: 10,112
Sunday Circulation: 10,806

The idea of creating and embracing a "community agenda" started in February 2003. Our goal was to identify several topics that would hit home with our readers based on reader profiles and RBS information. The team met to identify 3 or 4 community topics for the newspaper to address in stories throughout the year, striving to make a difference in our community and hopefully effect change. The emerging favorites from all the ideas thrown out at the pizza lunch meeting on Feb. 6, were promoting the importance of volunteerism; housing in Logansport and Cass County is rife with overcrowding, tenants trashing apartments, overpricing, etc.; and family values.

A Project Grease Pencil Committee meeting was held in August 2002. We invited several readers to receive a week's worth of complementary editions of the Pharos-Tribune. In return we asked that they use the enclosed red grease pencil to mark up their newspaper. We wanted to know what they read and didn't read, where they stopped reading, etc.

As a result of Project Grease Pencil we are placing more hard news (local and wire) stories on A1; devoting more space to medical health matters with a minimum weekly story that we promote in the skybox, and we have revamped the entertainment page. We have also begun to take stories or topics perceived to be negative and are looking at the positive side.

We're very proud of our monthly "wrap around" promotional piece. The equivalent of a full page, this "wrap around" is a single sheet of newsprint (or dinky) that is centered vertically around the fold so that it wraps half way around the front page and half way around the back page of the A-section one time per month.

We have further embraced the RI findings by implementing several other initiatives, such as in-paper content promotion every day, forming a Rolodex full of sources that can be used as everyday people in stories; using many more "go & do" boxes with stories to help readers with little time to read, focusing more on content shown to appeal to readers, like health, home, food & fashion. In 2003, we also added Knight Ridder graphics and photos to appeal to light to moderate readers.



Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
Daily Circulation: 101,288
Sunday Circulation: 113,999

Newspaper redesign to improve navigability.

Also focusing on more enterprise stories, more people-oriented stories and more "go and do" stories.



Potomac News & Manassas Journal Messenger (VA)
Daily Circulation: 20,983
Sunday Circulation: 20,472

Usually all local news front pages.

Added a themed Community page each weekday to Journal Messenger.

Added vital statistics.

Scout news added to our Neighbors pages.

Increased reviews of local arts groups.

More local stories on features pages and improved features and entertainment pages.

Putting ordinary people in government stories.

Increasing the number of local faces in the papers.



Poughkeepsie Journal (NY)
Daily Circulation: 39,984
Sunday Circulation: 51,067

Increased database reporting featured in front-page enterprise presentations such as an analysis of local restaurant and school cafeteria inspections that drew readers' attention.

Improved our Friday (Enjoy!) entertainment guide. It offers more content, including features on local nightspots, more film and restaurant reviews, an improved calendar and Broadway and Off-Broadway theater reviews.

Developed content geared to our growing commuter and suburban audience, such as Family Weekend Planner, a page that tells parents what they can do with their kids on the weekend; Day Trips, a feature about places to go within a day's drive; commuter columns offering advice for those who travel by car or train; a commuter Web site offering travel information such as updates on bridge traffic across the Hudson.

Created theme pages in Sports five days a week, including a Players section focusing on recreational sports and outdoors activities, a "Without Limits" page focusing on extreme sports like rock climbing, a high school sports feature page, a NY pro sports feature enterprise page and an auto racing page.

Developed a page-one summary box makes it easier for commuters to see a daily line-up of what's in the paper.

Created Crime Beat, a weekly series that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the criminal justice system. The aim was to beef up Monday's circulation.

Revamped our Friday "Homes" real estate section featuring new content and columns, including a monthly profile of a local home or garden, plus Martha Stewart's column and "Small Spaces," a feature on decorating small areas.

Redesigned our Web site and added depth (such as an extensive high school sports site) and more online cross-promotions to the newspaper.

To spread our name and build revenue, we published two high-quality hardcover books based on content we had previously published in special sections in the newspaper (see more information under "Brand.")

Increased the use of graphics with stories.

Improved design to make the paper more compelling visually.

Created "Verge," a page written by and for teenagers.

Created a feature called "Tales of the Hudson Valley" that appears every other week in the Sunday Life section. It focuses on local history, of strong interest to both newcomers and long-time residents.



Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
Daily Circulation: 34,706
Sunday Circulation: 39,863

Created an Outdoors section to cover fishing, skiing, hunting and other fun stuff.

Created a North State Jobs and Careers section in Sunday's paper.

Offer two columns written for and by young adults.

Expanded offerings for students in the paper - we run at least 2 in-paper features a week, sometimes three, directed at school-aged children.

Created a 50 plus Fine Living monthly section.

Established a "Yes" desk where readers can call to make sure their news item gets in the paper. We have a person who staffs the phone and disseminates the press releases.

Created a Personal Finance section on Sundays to talk about consumer subjects, investing and personal finance.

Created a Personal Technology page on Mondays. This page reviews games and discusses the newest gizmos, software and issues that will impact those of us who use computers, cell phones, fancy TVs, digital cameras and the like.



The Reporter (Vacaville, CA)
Daily Circulation: 17,575
Sunday Circulation: 19,143

Started using more breakouts and text-box graphics.

Expanded our People column.

Started a column for school news.

Started a motor sports column.

Started publishing photo galleries online from big-ticket events such as graduations and events.

We're working on adding a list of today's funeral services.



Richmond Register (KY)
Daily Circulation: 7,288
Sunday Circulation: 7,704

Increase go & do boxes.

Increased feature style stories.

Increased number of average people who appear in the paper.

Increased number of stories for lifestyles section.

Increased number of stories with addition information in the form of a sidebar or pull-out box.

Increased number of content promotions and teasers used in the paper.



Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Daily Circulation: 187,409
Sunday Circulation: 228,262

More go-and-do coverage.

More boxes on where to get more information.

Overhaul of Weekend section: content and design.

Improved packaging throughout.

Goal of 12 forward promotions a day done by news department.

Goal of 12 cross-promotions a day done by news department (not counting A1 rail).

Limits on story length: 50% of staff stories less than 15 inches.

Emphasis on short leads - fewer than 30 words - on 80% of articles.

Emphasis on entry points with 50% of staff-bylined stories.

Overhaul Saturday feature section: brighter appearance, more home & garden focus.

More discussion of what's relevant to readers' daily lives.

Working on a personal health weekly section.



The Roanoke Times (VA)
Daily Circulation: 100,160
Sunday Circulation: 112,397

Everyday Heroes: A weekly feature on ordinary people doing extraordinary volunteer work.

Just Life: An occasional feature on everyday slices of life from around the region.

Featured obits: Stories about the lives of ordinary people who left a significant, if not traditionally newsworthy, imprint on the region.

"What's on Your Mind?" A cheeky, weekly Q&A answering sometimes quirky reader questions.

Health briefs: More of them, focused on the Tuesday newspaper.

Front page reefers: Frequent promotions of inside content.

Weather: Will expand with color for October redesign.

Same-day promos.

Redesign: Will launch full-color redesign in October with goal of making newspaper cleaner, clearer, more attractive, more organized, easier to read and navigate, with multiple layers of information, an emphasis on enterprise, usefulness, local connections, and reader engagement.

Internal "People Connection¨ critiques: Once-a-week critiques used to drive home key readership initiatives.

Graphical story planner to enhance visual presentation for centerpieces and other stories.



The Robesonian (Lumberton, NC)
Daily Circulation: 12,877
Sunday Circulation: 15,662

Assessed current content and realigned to meet initiative criteria.

Launched several local features that revolve around 'ordinary people'.

Local cook of the month.

Local man-on-the-street opinion section.

Student 'man-on-the-street' feature.

Use of break-out boxes and refers.

Use of more graphics to help explain/encapsulate stories.



Rock Island Argus (IL)
Daily Circulation: 12,682
Sunday Circulation: 14,515

We made some minor content changes.

I attended one of the Readership Seminars this spring. We did an assessment of where we stood in 8 areas and are developing a plan and beginning to implement changes in many areas.

We just got results from our first RBS survey and will meet soon to analyze results in more detail.



Rockford Register Star (IL)
Daily Circulation: 68,015
Sunday Circulation: 80,692

Revamped sections: Entertainment; Business.

New Section formats.

New columns and pages targeted to segments.



Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
Daily Circulation: 304,949 (Mon-Fri); 621,221 (Mon-Sat)
Sunday Circulation: 789,137

Redesigned the newspaper to give it greater range, consistency and impact.

Added a weekly baseball section on Mondays to bring readers back to the newspaper after the weekend. (We don't have a Sunday paper.)

Added weekly football sections Monday and Friday during the football season, for the same reason as baseball section.

Added an outdoors adventure section called Rocky Mountain Adventure on Saturdays to attract young readers and better reflect the Colorado lifestyle.

Added Weekend@Home to our Friday Weekend Spotlight section to reflect the many activities people do on the weekend that don't involve going out: TV, Books, Video, DVDs, CDs, video games, etc.

Added a weekly perspective page on Thursdays to add depth to the paper on a weekday, a surprise every Thursday.

Made page 2A a daily guide to the entire paper and to things to do in the community and online.

Added a "High Country" section on Wednesdays as a guide to winter recreation, with specific how-to-info on skiing, snowboarding and other winter sports.

Added a weekly Motorsports page.

Introduced what we call channels, a sleeve of interesting and pointed items on section fronts or covers, including commentary. These channels have more attitude than the rest of the paper, representing the personality of the paper.

Added a From the Publisher column every Saturday on page 2A that humanizes the paper and explains our decisions and introduces our people.

Added a video games column.

Added a local history column.

Added a business opinion page on Saturdays.

Launched two new annual sections, "Winter Escapes" and "Summer Escapes," two magazine sections that are guides to enjoying Colorado in each season. These have a deep Internet component.

Launching a new publication, "Top of the Rocky" this month, which will be used to emphasize our authority on what's best about this area.

Big emphasis on the Internet, and its link to the newspaper.



The Sacramento Bee (CA)
Daily Circulation: 283,194
Sunday Circulation: 343,414

Newsroom focused on high-potential content areas (local news, entertainment news, community happenings).

Newsroom redesigned paper to make it easier to read and more navigable.

Focused on improving advertising content within entertainment sections.

More consistent and explicit in-paper content promotion.



The Saginaw News (MI)
Daily Circulation: 47,100
Sunday Circulation: 57,711

Saturday WEEKend A 1. Our TV Magazine has traditionally helped drive single copy circulation on Saturdays. As on-screen alternatives to our still popular TV book gradually robbed sales, we've dressed up our cover to make it pop at newsstands and in the stores.

Weekend Wallet. You're sitting there Saturday morning with your Saginaw News. What money matters are on your mind now that it's finally the weekend? Getting the snowblower ready? Doing the fall fertilizing? Fixing that annoying bathroom faucet drip? That's what our editors are trying to picture as they assign stories for this new section, part of a front to back redesign.

Weekend Blitz (or Slam or Spring Sports, depending on the season) high school sports Saturday wrap-up. The conflict: High school sports are our bread and butter. But college and pro sports probably have broader following. They fight each other on the section front. Our solution? Focus the front on big time athletics and turn the back page of the Saturday section into "Page One" for preps.

Weekend Rap. Just three weeks ago, we started a sports "editorial page" for the back page of the Saturday paper during the months when high school athletics is in remission. When football cranks up in the autumn, we'll move it to Sunday.

The "rails." Designed to always change, always offer surprises. Heavy on reader participation. The Gallery, for example, has asked readers to share wedding disaster stories, funny things their children have said, household tips and so on. Metro "In search of" has led quests for the best DJ's (we rode that one to tons of free air time as the stations promoted votes for their talent), the ugliest car, regular people who look like celebrities (we run the pictures and some of them actually do). The Two Minute News strives to stay graphic and root out the most interesting and readable to get readers inside the paper.

The employment graphic. We're a p.m. paper with early deadlines. Radio and TV always beat us with the hard news about employment rates in our General Motors, job-obsessed town. So we give readers details next day in easy-to-absorb form.

Weekend activities. You have to understand our community character to see why we would put this on a hard news page. Traditionally, you worked here for good pay on an assembly line doing fairly boring work while daydreaming about how you were going to spend your weekend free time. The way people make their livings has changed; the culture hasn't caught up. We run this every Thursday (by Friday thousands of folks already have headed north to boat, camp, snowmobile or ski) and cross-refer to our HOT Ticket weekend entertainment section. Many weeks we also tease both with an A 1 photo or story on something going on during the weekend. When we reworked our Saturday paper, we added Weekend Activities to page A3.

On Course. Golf has reached mania status in Michigan. Expensive resort courses and mom and pop links are popping up everywhere in what has to be approaching an overdeveloped market. But tee times remain difficult to find. So we do double-truck, color golf pages during the season: a sports editor's column, course profile, features, tips, holes in one, the latest from the pro tour and your funny golf stories (send it in and win an On Course golf shirt if we use it — I have one, they are pretty cool). With Tee Times, we found out a good way to get charity outings and other events in the paper.

HELP. Goes with our "The Saginaw News Helping You" slogan, repeated amply on the flag, in every house ad, promo and note from the editor. One of our surveys indicated that "at risk" readers are fans of self-help columns. We decided to flood the paper with them. This short-bites, easy-to-consume Q&A format runs every Friday. Like the rails, it is always changing, depending on which of the guest experts has the most readable, helpful information. The syndicates were surprisingly accommodating about rates I was able to do it without added cost by cutting features in other parts of the paper. My favorite-advice with an attitude for the 20's and 30's demo. Directions to the feature editor: If any one of these get stale, dump it and get something else. We want it always changing and surprising.

Your Daily HELP. When Ann Landers died, we expanded on the Friday section theme by stretching the advice with attitude column (written only three times a week) out to offer a question/answer or two daily and picked up Dear Annie, to go with it.

Academic Dream Team and Terrific Teens/Spin. What editor isn't tired of hearing it: "The athletes get all the attention." So every year, we do our best students dream team section, give it good play on A1 and time it to go out with our Newspaper in Education package. Terrific Teen useful for bundling up and mailing to readers who write to complain about how we only report about the bad kids, why don't you ever write about the good things young people do" runs weekly on Wednesday's SpiN. SpiN plays off our brand-ID SN flag, in case you didn't notice. (I included samples of our dream team graphics. Our sports staff does it for every major boys and girls sport.)

A portrait of Saginaw County: A look at your neighborhood. 54 consecutive 2000 Census tract packages on every neighborhood in our county. Readers can compare their situations to that of their neighbors for 1990 and 2000, then see how they match up with the county as a whole for the two every-10-years counts.

Animal House-featured creatures. Our love affair with our pets.

Rural Life-Our most recent survey showed strong readership across the dimensions of our constituency: Urban, suburban, black white, men, women. The least locked in, though, was rural readership at just 65 percent on Sunday, 52 percent daily. We have a multiple-part plan for doing better, one of which is our rural life page. We introduced it in March this year.



Salisbury Post (Salisbury-Spencer-East Spencer, NC)
Daily Circulation: 23,869
Sunday Circulation: 25,223

Shared Readership Initiative findings with management team.

Developed master plan.

Reviewed and updated content, customer service guidelines.

Launched new products.

Best Practices guidelines for delivery.



The San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Daily Circulation: 373,344
Sunday Circulation: 438,848

The reallocation of staffing and coverage in the zones resulted in increases in the percentage of thorough readers of the metro sections from 1999 to today.

We have centered resources on the expansion of our watchdog role. Readership studies confirm that a core competency for a metro daily newspaper is to represent the interests of the public against the illegal or unethical behavior of elected officials or other public figures. To that end, we have devoted resources to getting results. In the past 36 months, results have been plentiful. Here are some tops of the waves examples: We exposed Port Commissioner David Malcolm's conflict of interest and our reporting led to his subsequent conviction. Our reporting led to the ousting of the director of the county's humane center as well as the overhaul of that organization. We called into question the revenue distribution habits of the Red Cross of San Diego and that investigation led to the resignation of the director, Dodie Rotherham and the overhaul of the board. On a zone level, we unearthed corruption on the part of the Santee city manager and our reporting led to his resignation. Behind each of these examples is a significant resource commitment that pays dividends by cementing the U-T as the community watchdog for San Diego.

The creation of a bulldog edition (6/2000) to increase readership and use of the advertising, inserts and editorial material in the Sunday paper. Currently the Bulldog averages nearly 20,000 copies per week.

We added zoned editorial pages that have resulted in increases in the percentage of readers thoroughly reading the editorial and opinion pages.

Addition of Eventos Latinos in Night & Day to reach the growing English-speaking or bilingual Hispanic market. In addition to Eventos, we have given new emphasis to Latin America coverage including a weekly roundup of events in Mexico in Sunday's AA section and established a soccer page in sports.

Creation of Currents Weekend on Friday. (1/2003). No qualitative measurement of readership change is available but, anecdotally, entertainment based advertising has increased since the modifications were made.

Better organization of pages A1, A2 and A3 in an effort to answer our reader's heavy demand for hard news in the newspaper and present it with focus and utility. These changes have yielded the intended results. We have seen thorough readership of the front page increase.

Development and expansion of the topic of coverage titled "Urban Aggravation." Each week, a multitude of stories in both zoned and full run, address reader hot button concerns such as traffic, education/schools, lack of affordable housing, crime and growth. Stories on these related topics are found in every section of the paper from Homes to Business, Metro to Currents. With the exception of crime coverage, our current readership study does not track, either qualitatively or quantitatively, our effectiveness of in covering those topics. Anecdotally, we receive a significant number of reader calls and emails about these stories signaling that they are both highly read and highly effective.

To reflect the changing face of the San Diego sports fan's interest, we reconfigured the use of page two in sports to emphasize soccer's popularity as well as outdoor participatory sports. This has led to an increase in the readership of the Outdoors material as well as world soccer coverage.

The online operation has contributed in this way: Changed Web site to emphasize breaking news and focused on business day audience.



San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Daily Circulation: 479,433
Sunday Circulation: 539, 563

Improved in-paper promotion of content.

Improved customer complaint levels - CPTs 60% and 40% Sunday. Better service, happier readers.

Redesigned Sunday newspaper to make it more navigable.



The Sanford Herald (NC)
Daily Circulation: 10,624
Sunday Circulation: 10, 461

We have just begun a Quality & Excellence project, working from the inside out to accomplish two objectives:

Define our standards, in writing, for our coverage, keeping in mind that quality & excellence (along with accuracy, timeliness, accountability, etc.) are hallmarks.

Re-examine every element of the newspaper (from index boxes, folio lines, etc.) with these questions in mind: is this the best we can do? Is there a way to do it better?



Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
Daily Circulation: 106,594
Sunday Circulation: 133,750

Created the position of Readership Editor.

Began daily and weekly advanced promotion of Content throughout the newspaper and on radio.

Started News Update column for story follow-up.



Savannah Morning News (GA)
Daily Circulation: 56,599
Sunday Circulation: 70,137

News:

Increased community news event coverage.

Embedded war coverage, Hometown Heroes.

Daily business coverage.

Special emphasis on golf coverage, due to four area tournaments.

West Chatham/Effingham Closeup split.

Increased local news content from an average of 23 local stories/day. in the first quarter to 26 a day in April and May.


Advertising:

Style Page – a full page, full color broadsheet page published twice a month.

Color By The Inch – a program to increase color in small space ads.

Healthy Advice from the Pro's – an advertorial environment for area medical professionals to capitalize on high interest in our area for health related topics.

Starting Out/Starting Over – banner ad page directed to entry level positions paying less than $10 per hour.

Classified Section – at long last, we began publishing a stand alone classified section.

Paid Obituaries – Generates very interesting, very local, very colorful content.



South Bend Tribune (IN)
Daily Circulation: 72,186
Sunday Circulation: 101,204

Market/readership survey and analysis, focus groups, re-designed sections, more briefs, more local pictures, fewer jumps, increased zoning for local-local news.



The Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, IL)
Daily Circulation: 28,267
Sunday Circulation: 36,381

Redesign made paper more navigable.

Redesigned flag driving home brand.

Emphasize local news.

Zoned editions.



The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Daily Circulation: 118,877
Sunday Circulation: 132,489

Established an annual RBS survey.

Raised story count and adopted focus on harder news for news section fronts to deliver more local news to readers.

Recast our business section to be for and about business people, adding a business columnist, retraining staff on what makes a business story, connecting a new editor with business leaders and adding a new annual economic review section.

Added accuracy watch – errors are now corrected on the front page of the section in which they occurred.

In paper promotion: news produces promos for today's and tomorrow's content every day.



Stanly News & Press (Albemarle, NC)
Daily Circulation: 10,000
Sunday Circulation: 10,000

First and second "bubba" interviews on matters of interest.

"What's Coming Up Tomorrow" subject in page one briefs each issue.

Softer, lighter sell on hard news stories.

As many local names as possible in an all-local news newspaper.

Using a rail on page one for briefs.

Process color photos on page one.

"Question of the Week" feature on the editorial page each Tuesday, with local photos and answers.



Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY)
Daily Circulation: 29,169
Sunday Circulation: 40,270

Subject matter, including special sections, directed at seniors, Generation X, sports buffs of various kinds.

Better advance promotion of coming enterprise stories and projects.

Reader involvement in the newspaper and on the Web site.

Strong use of the Web site as an alter ego to the print product.



The State (Columbia, SC)
Daily Circulation: 115,959
Sunday Circulation: 151,816

Our Newsroom is committed to coverage that Knight Ridder editors have identified as the seven tenets of good journalism: Watchdog, Trust, People Like Me, First and Only, Useful, Easy to Use, Storytelling. First measured by KR with a telephone survey in fall 2002, we'll be rated again annually.



The State-Journal Register (Springfield, IL)
Daily Circulation: 57,384
Sunday Circulation: 66,708

We continue to emphasize the type of local news that won't be found anywhere else in our community, including various types of police and crime reporting, sports stories of all types, wedding anniversaries, births, deaths and other areas of community news. We continue to emphasize a wide-range of specialized features, such as health, food and outdoor interests. We also continue to emphasize what newspapers can do best - in-depth reporting, analysis and editorial commentary on issues that people care about. Nothing fancy - just solid, down-to-earth, pertinent information that people can count on to be accurate, fair and balanced.

We continue to focus on areas that our ongoing research indicates people are very much interested in, such as in letters to the editor and other forms of expanded commentary. We offer people an opportunity to write expanded commentary on a weekly opinion page that consists only of material authored by community members. We try to cater to the readers' needs "to be heard" and to offer parts of the newspaper as a forum for that effort. (Most local, radio talk shows use material generated from our commentary pages as the basis for their daily programming. Too bad we can't get them to pay for it!!)

Our corrections policy - in which we publish corrected information on the front of the section in which the error appeared, including the front page - is basically unparalleled in the newspaper industry. (We began that practice in 1997 before the Readership Institute was "born.")

We also have developed approximately 65 special feature sections to cater to the needs of various market segments. Most notable among these are recently instituted annuals like Healthcare, Finance and Nostalgia sections, which appeal to large segments of the local population.

In addition, classified liner ads are proven readership drivers. We de