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.
Aiken Standard (SC)
Daily Circulation: 13,364
Sunday Circulation: 14,066
The culture of our company is to be a helpful one
and to put our readers first.
Akron Legal News (OH)
Daily Circulation: 700
No changes.
Altus Times (OK)
Daily Circulation: 4,749
Sunday Circulation: 4,749
Cross training conducted between accounts payable, accounts receivable,
circulation clerk and customer service rep in business office to create
more depth on staff. Employee of the quarter and employee of the year
program started.
Employee newsletter started which features a segment on the readership
initiative.
Each employee was given an Altus Times shirt. All employees
are encouraged to the wear the shirts to work each Friday in a show
of team spirit.
Anderson Independent-Mail (SC)
Daily Circulation: 38,576
Sunday Circulation: 44,194
Maintained a high level of focus on total quality advantage as a company-wide
culture – the way we do business.
Expanded employee recognition by adding an employee Hall of Fame that
recognizes high achievers and length of service employees.
Capitalized on E. W. Scripps special recognition program by successfully
nominating high achieving employees to the President's Club. The recognition
includes stock options.
Planning this year to conduct a company-wide quality principles refresher-training
program for all employees and managers. Customer-focused quality is
the foundation of our culture.
Received top ratings in all categories related to management culture
in recent E. W. Scripps employee opinion survey.
Atlanta Journal Constitution (GA)
Daily Circulation: 460, 672
Sunday Circulation: 620,782
Innovation, research and development is a constant. We have developed
a culture at the AJC that encourages innovation. We like to try new
things and we're getting better and more sophisticated in how we do
this. The launches of many of the sections mentioned in the Content
portion of this memo are evidence of this emphasis on product development.
It is especially gratifying to have maintained this emphasis during
a down market. While many news organizations hunker down, looking only
to cut costs, it is clear here that we expect innovation to continue
despite financial challenges. In fact, it is during these times that
forward-thinking product development is most crucial. We expect our
employees and our paper to be poised and ready to take greatest advantage
when the economy turns around -- we will be positioned to do that only
if we maintain a constant emphasis on improvement and growth.
Austin American-Statesman (TX)
Daily Circulation: 183,288
Sunday Circulation: 233,608
A "Culture Club" committee with representatives from each
department analyzed the data gathered for the readership study and made
recommendations to the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee
developed a statement that demonstrates the company's commitment to
a constructive culture.
Our company, Cox Enterprises Inc., has shown its commitment to management
development by creating and funding the Leadership Fundamentals program
designed to effectively communicate the company's position regarding
a constructive management style and diversity. As of this date, 58%
of the Statesman's 236 managers and supervisors have been through the
two-day program and all will be trained by the end of the year.
Newsroom Training. The newsroom has developed an extremely successful
training program that has empowered staff to take an active role in
their own on going education. The assistant managing editor invites
newsroom staff to participate in a committee that seeks outside trainers
in all fields. They make arrangements and schedule everything from informal
brown-bag lunches to workshops to individual coaching. The committee
has a substantial budget to cover expenses -- a budget that has increased
throughout the last several years, even as the economy has tightened.
This has helped improve skills and morale -- positive cultural change
that ultimately translates into improved product.
And in the effort to improve communication, these changes were made
that positively impact the culture of our business: Improved "community
board" located in common area to share info; the internal phone
directory is now updated and published every six months; Statesman Note,
an in-house newsletter, is produced and distributed weekly; a quarterly
managers' meeting now pulls business-wide leaders together for sharing
of information including the CFO's financial report.
The Bakersfield Californian (CA)
Daily Circulation: 71,495
Sunday Circulation: 82,718
New aggressive approach to improve and track culture
in line with RI recommendations. Emphasis on training, communication,
compensation and performance management.
The Baytown Sun (TX)
Daily Circulation: 11,545
Sunday Circulation: 11,265
Improved employee morale and encouraged voluntarism within the community.
Continuous brand emphasis of the newspaper as an indispensable part
of the community.
Beaver County Times (Beaver, PA)
Daily Circulation: 42,778
Sunday Circulation: 48,875
Adopted performance-based management system.
Brattleboro Reformer (VT)
Daily Circulation: 11,655
Creating inclusive environment getting employees outside of the editorial
department to help shape the paper.
Bucks County Courier Times (Levittown, PA)
Daily Circulation: 67,094
Sunday Circulation: 73,252
Expanded partnerships with various media (radio, TV) in region.
Developed plans to grow new revenue streams.
Expanded employee recognition programs, including Calkins Media Employee
of the Year.
Implementing performance management system.
Utilize “workout” sessions to allow employees to resolve workforce,
workplace issues.
The Buffalo News (NY)
Daily Circulation: 223,957
Sunday Circulation: 306,102
Appointed an Assistant Managing Editor for Readership.
Monthly readership sessions for employees.
Our monthly employee newsletter has a space for readership information.
Readership is included on executive level agendas.
Burlington Free Press (VT)
Daily Circulation: 50,203
Sunday Circulation: 60,264
Engage every section editor in planning and cross promoting “extra”
content for the Web.
Demonstrate more community leadership and instill employee pride by
doing more investigative and Freedom of Information (FOI) work.
Focus on training and improving the fundamentals. We deliver a consistent
local presence in all sections and have improved overall writing, headlines
and photojournalism.
The Capital (Annapolis, MD)
Daily Circulation: 45,538
Sunday Circulation: 48,730
Less insistence on productivity. More communication
daily with smaller meetings among reporters and editors. Formal expectations
given to all reporters so that they fully understand what is expected
of them (a former complaint). Regular staff email to instantly communicate
news, staff changes, etc.
Cleburne Times-Review (TX)
Daily Circulation: 7,447
Sunday Circulation: 7,447
Holding weekly production meetings at central location of cluster
group.
Holding weekly managers meeting at each location
within the cluster group.
Implementing weekly editorial meeting for cluster
group to work on shared content and special section ideas.
Encouraging carriers to provide better customer
service by awarding carriers for outstanding service. This includes
honoring a carrier of the month and the year, published in the newspaper.
Clinton Herald (IA)
Daily Circulation: 12,254
From a newsroom perspective, I'm looking to have people directed and
respond in a constructive manner. We have made progress in this area.
Out of 10 people in the newsroom, most are constructive; we have three
that fall either into the passive aggressive or aggressive defensive
mode.
Corsicana Daily Sun (TX)
Daily Circulation: 7,079
Sunday Circulation: 7,079
High Five employee recognition award for over the top customer service.
The Courier-Journal (Louisville,
KY)
Daily Circulation: 217,396
Sunday Circulation: 282,072
We are adapting to more immediacy on our Web site with news that appears
first online, then in the newspaper if the timing is right. That's a
significant change in attitude.
Craig Daily Press (CO)
Daily Circulation: 2,817
Healthy team dynamics (mud volleyball tournament, league volleyball
in summer and fall, weekly team lunches, daily morning coffee, staff
birthday parties, weekly social gatherings).
Commitment to community (Craig Rotary and Lions Club representations,
Chamber of Commerce Board member, United Way Board Member, City Softball
League, Special Olympics coaches, Moffat County Partners mentor, Downtown
Business Association Member, Grand Olde West Days Committee).
The Crescent-News (Defiance, OH)
Daily Circulation: 17,615
Sunday Circulation: 18,524
Constantly talk about what the people in
our market are doing and are intereted in
reading about.
Crossville Chronicle (TN)
Circulation: Three issues weekly: Tues: 19,000; Wed: 8,500; Fri. 8,500
Members of the advertising and editorial departments worked in the
mailroom inserting papers during the holiday season to assist in getting
papers ready for sale. This offers those departments an insight into
what it take getting the newspaper to the post office once it is printed.
Lesson: The job doesn't stop when the press is turned on.
We had a building-wide cookout last year on Labor Day weekend with
the editorial department providing hamburgers and hotdogs and other
department personnel bringing a covered dish. Many workers outside editorial
and advertising staffs expressed thanks for being included.
We have taken an extra step in dialogue with mail and press department
employees to provide for the news department news tips and feature ideas
for the news room.
News and advertising work together on features for the business page.
We offer a free story to all new businesses when they purchase an ad.
This has stopped the freeloading from businesses, who wanted the newspaper
to promote them, and then turned around and spent their advertising
budget with the radio stations. This has worked well, with advertising
letting news know when they have secured an ad from a new business.
Cumberland Times-News (MD)
Daily Circulation: 30,555
Sunday Circulation: 32,836
Readership and service are now part of employee evaluations.
Advertising, editorial and circulation all now have programs to reward
employees for readership-driven incentives and results.
Readership commitment now Priority 1 in weekly department head meetings.
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
We're working on it. We've learned that we are indeed
very defensive. A multi-departmental task force is examining our culture.
The Daily Courier (Forest City,
NC)
Daily Circulation: 9,504
Sunday Circulation: 9,504
Invited outside "voices" to have a place
in the paper.
Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton,
MA)
Daily Circulation: 18,445
We sent Editor and Circulation Director to API Partnership in Readership
session.
We formed a promotion committee of circulation, advertising, editorial
and new media departments to focus on readership issues.
We formed a circulation task force which brainstormed over 100 ideas.
We strive for a “can do” attitude from all levels of all departments.
Daily Journal (Franklin, IN)
Daily Circulation: 17,228
Resume publisher lunches/meetings outlining 20,000 goal.
Start quarterly Publisher Memo to employees.
Dispatch daily news budget to circulation department.
Implement circulation incentive program.
Rewrite circulation supervisor job descriptions to include sales.
Circulation sales training.
New circ. sales mgr. implements sales plan.
Plan summer employee event.
Host United Way Day at Daily Journal.
The Daily News (Longview, WA)
Daily Circulation: 22,350
Sunday Circulation: 21,704
Created a flat organizational chart and empowered
employees to make more decisions and handle customer requests and complaints.
The Daily News (Rhinelander, WI)
Daily Circulation: 5,033
Sunday Circulation: 5,557
Less wire copy, more local copy; Also more visible
in community celebrations and events.
Daily Press (Newport News-Hampton,
VA)
Daily Circulation: 92,434
Sunday Circulation: 115,985
In 2001, as part of our readership study subgroups,
we formed a cross company team to specifically address "culture"
related issues. The committee made some recommendations that centered
around employee communications, development, recognition, company knowledge,
and benchmarking, for consideration. The most significant action that
resulted from that group was the decision to conduct an employee survey.
An employee survey was conducted in September 2002 with a 63% participation
rate by employees. As a result of that feedback and analysis, four major
cross department action plans were developed. Specific actions have
included a revision of our job posting program, development of Daily
Press "rules of the road", a proposal for an employee suggestion
program, expansion of management and employee development opportunities,
and more frequent and varied communication to our employees.
Survey feedback also led us to commit to the development of a long
term "Workforce Development Plan". A plan is currently under
way to understand our current employee demographics, assess our skills,
develop new skills needed for the future, understand the influences
of the external market and demographics and create some measurable goals
to help us meet our future business needs.
Daily Sentinel (Rome, NY)
Daily Circulation: 14,810
Teaming and ownership.
The Daily Times (Farmington, NM)
Daily Circulation: 17,738
Sunday Circulation: 19,328
We have not been able to overcome our ingrained
idea that we know what the reader wants – despite the reader telling
us differently. But our newsroom culture is one of innovation, drive,
passion and responsibility – for the most part. This shows in the content
of our newspaper.
Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
Daily Circulation: 100,582
Sunday Circulation: 117,854
The core management team, directly by the publisher
has created a team to uncover ways to more effectively work across departmental
lines.
Overall, we have aggressively researched ways to build readership,
loyalty and internal culural shifts using data from ASNE and our own
market studies. Steven Duke from the Readership Institute also conducted
a two-day seminar at our paper on all of the four headings in this question.
The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA)
Daily Circulation: 46,497
Sunday Circulation: 49,171
We learned from the Culture Team that it is well-documented
in other industries that how people are managed and the culture in which
they work has a major effect on how they respond to their customers
and their co-workers. The Culture Team become the steam engine for the
other four C.A.R.E.S. opportunity teams. Their initiatives included:
Internal Focus Groups - to share perspectives, gauge progress of change
initiatives and ultimately reinforce a culture movement.
True Colors/Operating Philosophy - Part I.
True Colors (much like Myers-Briggs program),
through personality assessment, we identified
co-workers' strengths and working styles.
Part II. Adopted an operating philosophy
that reflected desired changes in the way
we do business and established principles
of accepted behavior - the key to a successful
culture change.
Work-Out Sessions - analysis of work activities versus contributions
to our success, with goals of streamlining or eliminating processes
for better efficiencies, and greater balance between work and home,
throughout the company.
Planning Model - institutionalized a planning model created through
strategic planning sessions, with goals to improve project execution,
communication between departments and buy-in on top company priorities.
Conflict Management Training - give all staff Thomas-Killman Conflict
Training, lead to a greater ability to deal with conflict in a positive
manner. Expected outcome of the training was to foster openness, innovative
thinking and adaptability and look at mistakes at learning opportunities.
360-Degree Feedback - administer the Acumen 360-Degree Feedback training
to directors. This initiative has helped develop the company leaders
and foster a culture where we take responsibility for our own personal
and career development.
Managers' Reward Toolbox - provided managers with toolbox of small tokens
(movie tickets, t-shirts, etc) to spontaneously reward and recognize
staff for hard and smart work and to reinforce behaviors outlined in
Operating Philosophy.
The Detroit News and Free Press
(MI)
Daily Circulation: 547,506
Sunday Circulation: 738,709
Service and Culture
The service culture has been a major priority in Circulation — with
an ongoing focus, called "First Class Delivery," that
consistently recognizes and rewards employees and independent
contractors for excellence in Customer Service. The
standard measure of circulation service — reader complaints
per 1000 deliveries — has shown improvement both daily
and Sunday each of the past few years, as follows:
|
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
| The Detroit News |
1.9 |
1.2 |
0.9 |
| Detroit Free Press |
2.1 |
1.6 |
1.2 |
| Sunday |
5.1 |
3.9 |
2.7 |
East Valley Tribune (Mesa-Scottsdale-Tempe,
AZ)
Daily Circulation: 96,221
Sunday Circulation: 80,192
In recent years, we've driven a major cultural shift in the newsroom
away from the view that we are the Phoenix area's second and smaller
metro newspaper. We focus with a passion on East Valley stories, venues,
issues and editorially advocate for a better East Valley, particularly
when it comes to resource distribution between our cities and Phoenix.
(The East Valley is a cluster of five cities with a total population
of more than 1.1 million.)
We have almost completed the process of identifying our core newsroom
principles. Among them is a principle that defines how we should behave
in encounters with our readers.
Being the underdog in a competitive market has led to the evolution
of a different culture in our newsroom. There is a genuine recognition
that for our newspaper to survive we must work as a team in the newsroom
as well as with other departments in the building. That doesn't mean
compromising our ethics, but it does mean working closely with advertising
in giving birth, for instance, to a special sports section or a new
Sunday Arts section.
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. We¹ve
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.
Evansville Courier & Press
(IN)
Daily Circulation: 68,867
Sunday Circulation: 96,506
We are restructuring all meetings to dig down into
the first level of management, those folks in the trenches doing the
heavy-lifting every day.
Fort Collins Coloradoan (CO)
Daily Circulation: 28,501
Sunday Circulation: 34,954
Key improvements in interdepartmental communication
include:
Participation among frontliners has increased on
committees such as the AdQ (Ad Quality) Committee and Celebration Ads
Taskforce. Celebration ads were retooled in March so that customers
have opportunity to say more about their celebrations and we now run
them in color on Sundays, our biggest circulation/readership day.
Employees have been encouraged to submit receipts
from advertisers as part of our Boo$t Fort Collins program, and a winner
has been drawn each month. This program has increased positive feedback
among advertisers, boosted fun in the workplace and employees have won
$600 annualized.
In addition to quarterly What's Cookin'
sessions and annual holiday parties, our
HR team coordinated our first Coloradoan
tailgate party in 2002 during CSU's Homecoming
Week and game tickets were given away as
prizes to “fans with the most spirit”.
We also held Halloween costume contest
for dayside and nightside employees. Winners
got movie passes or tickets to local sporting
events.
All employees received “Labor Day” thank
you gift of Fort Collins Rocks CD in Sept.
2003 for the first time.
Employee survey was done in every department
in the summer of 2003, and the majority
of employees said the Coloradoan is a “great place to work”.
Still, meetings were held in each dept.
and dept. heads are developing action plans
to address concerns as needed.
More than 20 employees participated in
Make a Difference Day projects, and the
Coloradoan profiled six local Coloradoans
Making A Difference winners based on reader
submissions in October 2002. Each winner
received a $100 donation to their charity
of choice and was honored at a lunch. This
has become an annual event.
PEAK Intranet was launched in Oct. 2002 so that
employees can better acquaint themselves with names and faces of employees
in all departments electronically. Key company policies also are available
on the site for our computer-savvy workforce.
Gainesville Daily Register (TX)
Daily Circulation: 5,814
Sunday Circulation: 5,814
Use team approach to management. Everyone is informed.
Probe for input from team members.
Added Sunday supplement magazine.
The Gleaner (Henderson, KY)
Daily Circulation: 10, 452
Sunday Circulation: 11,837
Have scheduled quarterly meetings by the publisher with all departments
to update them on plans and development of the newspaper and to answer
any questions employees might have.
Hannibal Courier-Post (MO)
Daily Circulation: 8,350
Working hard to promote a culture of pride in the
organization.
Actively seek opinions of the staff when making decisions.
Use of staff committees on major projects.
Herald-Banner (Greenville, TX)
Daily Circulation: 8,239
Sunday Circulation: 9,224
Has been the toughest thing to change. With some
of the other changes we've made, we had turnover among some long-time
employees, and so the mood here was tense for a while.
The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC)
Daily Circulation: 50,015
Sunday Circulation: 56,612
Readership Progress report -- News
(how we approach coverage)
Mix, presentation of stories on A-1.
Refocused approach to writing, seeking more human element.
Better use of refer devices with stories, on A-1 and on section fronts.
Cross-functional teamwork to improve deadline performance.
Readership Progress report -- Circulation
Created distribution centers, measurably improving working conditions
for staff and carriers.
Consistently leveraged low cost training opportunities from NCPA and
MACMA, hosted two seminars and facilitated Covey's Seven Habits seminars
with staff.
Improved balance of female to male supervisors.
Changed weekend operation, hiring permanent dispatcher and converting
full-time supervisor to on-call status.
Changed truck drivers from contractors to certified employee operation.
Continued to work in cross-functional teams to improve processes.
The Houston Chronicle (TX)
Daily Circulation: 552,052
Sunday Circulation: 744,935
Our new Performance Management Program will link RI Imperatives to
many job descriptions and evaluation criteria at the Houston Chronicle
as we set performance standards for salary increases, bonuses, promotions,
etc.
Johnson City Press (TN)
Daily Circulation: 29,909
Sunday Circulation: 34,152
Our writers are beginning to work smarter. We'll be looking at agendas
of meetings, interviewing the principals prior to the meeting and writing
the story before the meeting takes place. We'll have our people sitting
in meetings for less time thus allowing them to cover more local items
of interest.
The Journal Times (Racine, WI)
Daily Circulation: 29,216
Sunday Circulation: 31,334
We employed cross-functional teams to implement several Readership
Institute initiatives, including making the paper less kinetic, developing
in-paper promotions, developing marketing strategies for the newspaper
and examining possible next-stage content changes based on the most
recent R.I. experience study.
Particularly in the newsroom, we advanced an employee
empowerment strategy and increased training opportunities for staff
and supervisors.
Knoxville News Sentinel (TN)
Daily Circulation: 128,865
Sunday Circulation: 153,718
Began steps to change culture, beginning with awareness
and education (Human Synergistic Model).
Recognize and understand the behavior norms from our defensive culture.
Created a “Readers First” committee to
study various reader needs and wants.
Created cross-training opportunities for new managers and co-workers.
Developed a leadership development program for non-management co-workers.
Lancaster New Era (PA)
Daily Circulation: 43,194
Sunday Circulation: 102,339
Knocking Down Department Walls - regular meetings
are held bi-monthly or quarterly with the 3 different editorial staffs
and the Circulation Director, Marketing Manager and other key Marketing
Division Managers.
Interdepartmental Communication - LNP already does not have a strong
silo environment in most cases - at the department manager level,
there is good cooperation and communication.
The Manhattan Mercury (KS)
Daily Circulation: 10,125
Sunday Circulation: 11,450
Overall focus on readership as a key issue for our
future.
McAlester News-Capital & Democrat
(OK)
Daily Circulation: 10,053
Sunday Circulation: 10,515
We have worked to eliminate silos between departments. We regularly
meet as department heads and have continuing informal dialogue.
Our staff has been told that we are all one team and should communicate
with each other about our concerns regardless of whether or not the
concern deals with a team member's particular department or another
department.
Monroe Evening News (MI)
Daily Circulation: 21,771
Sunday Circulation: 24,956
We use the Denison Culture Survey to measure strengths
and weaknesses. We are employee-owned; our ESOP Advisory Committee has
numerous activities to teach employees more about our business. We started
using the Great Game of Business to educate employees about financials
and to get a better handle on our budget. We assigned reporters to their
geographic counterparts in circulation and they have begun quarterly
meetings to look at issues of mutual concern (deadlines and breaking
news, how the paper looks on a rack); this has greatly increased their
understanding of each other and their roles.
Montgomery Advertiser (AL)
Daily Circulation: 50,763
Sunday Circulation: 62,137
Employees at every level were included in the annual
planning process.
A 2003 Operational Plan book was produced and distributed to all employees.
So employees can monitor our progress on reaching defined goals in the
plan, a monthly benchmark report is distributed to all employees.
Employee teams were set up to assist with developing Vision Statement,
clarifying Mission and preparing for Values.
Vision and Mission were placed on business cards, laminated and distributed
to all employees.
A monthly employee meeting – called First Wednesday – was established.
Departments report on items of interest, committees report the status
on projects, employees are recognized and the publisher updates employees
on revenue and circulation – employees can ask questions on any subject.
There are refreshments following the meeting. Each month a different
department organizes the meeting – the
overall theme, decorations and food.
Utilized monthly meetings to discuss brainstorming ideas for efficiencies,
marketing ideas and expense reduction.
Quarterly planning meetings are held. A group of 50 employees meet,
updates on the operational plan and stats are given and departments
and committees report on the projects for the upcoming quarter.
An emphasis was placed on on-time annual appraisals. Quarterly coaching
sessions were added to increase formal feedback each employee receives.
Succession planning was implemented. We identified skills and attributes
employees need to be promoted to their next position. Internal and regional
leadership training was implemented.
When we moved into our new building in 2002, we eliminated all reserved
parking related to titles (directors, publisher). Reserved parking was
created only for handicapped, temporary medical conditions and 2-hour
parking for employees who are in-and-out of the building (sales, DSM,
photo, reporters).
We developed an intranet to increase communications in the company.
In 2001, created an annual MBO bonus program for 31 managers and supervisors
and has expanded the program to more than 51 in 2002 ($1,000 - $2,500).
Initiated bi-monthly manager & supervisor
meetings for training, brainstorming, communicating.
Operating Committee minutes & Executive
Summaries are posted daily.
Publisher holds monthly Fireside Chat meetings with associates selected
at random.
Developed Team Advertiser program on the HR intranet site.
Developed Orbit, a job shadowing cross-departmental training program.
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
While we believe we have a customer-focused culture
that is connected to the community, we do not believe that is the perception.
So we are working to figure this out. I believe some change will come
as the new brand manager helps us refresh our culture. Interestingly,
the newsroom is having success with involving reporters in figuring
out how to connect with readers and give them more of what they want,
so that we can give them what they need.
The News Enterprise (Elizabethtown,
KY)
Daily Circulation: 16,073
Sunday Circulation: 19,483
To foster a more constructive culture, we have:
Introduced the Operation Gold Vault which emphasized the importance
of everyone's role in building readership.
Emphasized ethical conduct and integrity among our people built on
the Landmark Core Characteristics and Behaviors.
Become better listeners; conducted two credibility roundtables to
emphasize the need to be more open to our readers' wishes.
Publisher and editor more visible in the community.
Implemented internal customer survey to ensure that we respect internal
customers' needs.
Introduced quarterly team leader meeting and annual team leader survey.
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
Created a must-read community forum in the
letters pages by publishing almost all local
letters with minimal editing. Honored locally
as the "Best Letters Page in the Known
Universe."
Emphasis on integrity throughout organization, including moving all
advertisers to card, public airing of ethical blunders, really making
corrections.
Open the organization for internal and external communications. No
offices or office doors to close; outreach for community feedback.
Norwich Bulletin (CT)
Daily Circulation: 27,916
Sunday Circulation: 32,304
The first Newsroom Retreat, which occurred
in November, was built around acquainting
whole newsroom staff with findings in "The Power
to Grow Readership" report. It included formal presentation by
expert (Steve DeAngelis, Providence Journal marketing director) and
panel discussions with community leaders and a cross-section of readers.
Newspaper department heads also reported on their plans for the coming
years, aimed at "lowering silos."
Newsroom Summit in February followed up
on retreat, reviewing readership principles,
outlining the newspaper's "Franchise Topics," and
sharing market data with newsroom staff.
In the area of "lowering silos," the
newsroom and marketing and have been sharing
photographers and graphic artists as need
arises.
Observer-Dispatch (Utica, NY)
Daily Circulation: 45,916
Sunday Circulation: 53,629
Identified our newspaper's core values.
got employees involved in learning/understanding core values through
building-wide contest.
revitalized annual planning process by
expanding to include as many as 75 of our
employees on various "planning teams" with
close interaction with top directors.
The Olathe News (KS)
Daily Circulation: 5,789
Reconfigure beats to focus more on reader interests.
Redeploy resources to cover community.
The Olympian (Olympia, WA)
Daily Circulation: 37,473
Sunday Circulation: 45,336
Adopted principles of ethics with fairness and balance at the core.
Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Daily Circulation: 256,520
Sunday Circulation: 376,878
Introduced "cascading goals" which
summarize objectives for every department
and are communicated to every employee.
Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, IN)
Daily Circulation: 10,112
Sunday Circulation: 10,806
In our ongoing efforts to focus on “building an adaptive, constructive
culture that is attuned to readers and customers,” we introduced a “source
survey” in January 2003. We send out at
least one survey, per reporter, per month
to sources identified by the publisher.
We believe that this adds an extra measure
of accountability for the reporter helping
to ensure that we always get their best
effort on stories. The publisher and the
managing editor share the returned survey
with the reporter and then post it in the
break room for all employees to view.
On March 12, 2003, a team of Pharos-Tribune
employees met with readers during the first
ever “Meet the Press.” A series of house ads ran two
weeks prior to the event inviting readers to join us for free coffee
and a complimentary edition of the Pharos-Tribune from 11:30 AM to 1:30
PM at the Bullshipper's Café. Our
goal was to enforce to employees and the
public that we care about their opinion
and want to know if we're meeting their
needs. The day was extremely successful
with more than 75 readers showing up to
visit with us.
Since the introduction to the Readership Initiative, the Pharos-Tribune
now has a single copy box in the newsroom that is filled with the current
day's edition and reviewed by the news staff. It's important that we
look at our product through the eyes of a customer.
Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
Daily Circulation: 101,288
Sunday Circulation: 113,999
Not enough.
Poughkeepsie Journal (NY)
Daily Circulation: 39,984
Sunday Circulation: 51,067
We developed building-wide committees focusing on issues like New
Product Development, Sunday circulation, Web site Development and Home
Delivery Growth. Committees usually include members from the Newsroom,
Advertising, Circulation, Production and Marketing. They focus on finding
solutions to specific problems. For instance, one committee developed
a new tourism guide. Another improved the content promotion on the Sunday
front page to help draw more readers.
Record Searchlight
(Redding, CA)
Daily Circulation: 34,706
Sunday Circulation: 39,863
We started "Meet the Newspaper" meetings
about 4 times a year in various parts of
our distribution area. These prove to be
extremely successful. People make an effort
to meet our editor and publisher at the meetings,
expressing both delight and disdain, depending
on what brought them out. But they are appreciative
that we come to their neighborhood to listen
to them.
Offer 2 major contests a year where we give
away trips. The contests grow in the number
of entries each time we run it, so we think
readers love entering!
The Reporter (Vacaville, CA)
Daily Circulation: 17,575
Sunday Circulation: 19,143
To inspire our staff to implement readership
ideas, we launched a game, which we called "Readership: Catch the Wave." We
have broken into teams and they're competing
for points and prizes. Points are earned
for every readership-growing idea that is
implemented. Prizes include everything from
a mascot to ice cream and fancy lunches.
Richmond Register (KY)
Daily Circulation: 7,288
Sunday Circulation: 7,704
Employee of the month rewards offered to
employees in every department.
Incentives given to employees for selling
subscription.
Rewards given to employees in advertising
and editorial for excellence during the
week.
Regular meetings with management team and
individuals to keep everyone abreast of happenings
throughout the building.
Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Daily Circulation: 187,409
Sunday Circulation: 228,262
Push more decision-making lower.
Involve employees outside the newsroom
in revamping sections.
Involve employees outside the newsroom
in planning event coverage.
More focus on planning.
Interdepartmental working groups.
The Roanoke Times (VA)
Daily Circulation: 100,160
Sunday Circulation: 112,397
Develop people initiatives.
MIATE training: Managing in a Team Environment
(implemented in the early-to-mid 90s).
Diversity training: Company-wide rollout
for all employees to be completed by the
end of 2004.
Periodic performance evaluations and manager
surveys: Managers evaluations of employees,
as well as employees, evaluations of immediate
supervisors, the latter being a two-way learning
process for both employees and managers.
CI training: Continuous Improvement (implemented
in the early-to-mid 90s).
Separate Marketing department with a consumer
focus: Consumer marketing is the major focus.
The Robesonian (Lumberton, NC)
Daily Circulation: 12,877
Sunday Circulation: 15,662
Local newsletter for and by employees.
'Caught being Good' reward program for
employees.
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
Use of multi-department teams to address
circulation and advertising issues and
opportunities.
Semi-annual state of the newspaper meetings
with employees. Soon to go to monthly meetings
in August.
Open, sharing culture of information including
financial performance.
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
Daily Circulation: 304,949 (Mon-Fri); 621,221
(Mon-Sat)
Sunday Circulation: 789,137
Moved to a team culture in the newsroom
with the introduction of a new publishing
system. This gives copy editors and designers
more responsibility and more ability to
affect content.
Introduced an Intranet site to link staff
electronically.
Placed emphasis on focusing our efforts
on things that will impact readers. Tried
to move work from things that readers don't
see to things they do.
The Sacramento Bee (CA)
Daily Circulation: 283,194
Sunday Circulation: 343,414
Discussions with top management team on culture
issues and the development of strategies
to address the culture issue.
Leadership training focused on situational
leadership and implementation of 360 degree
performance feedback.
The Saginaw News (MI)
Daily Circulation: 47,100
Sunday Circulation: 57,711
The Saginaw News, since the early 1980s,
has nurtured a culture of cross fertilization
and cooperation among the news, advertising,
circulation, production and marketing departments.
But we continue to refine our relationships.
The most recent cover-to-cover remake of
the paper included representatives of all
departments on the editor's design team.
In 2000, we established a marketing group
that includes representatives of many of
the newspapers departments.
Editorial has a history of collaboration
and cooperation with the advertising department.
One example: The sports editor wanted to
create new golf pages. To help pay for the
project, he worked with the ad director to
identify potential advertisers and ways to
approach them.
Salisbury Post (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
We have created a positive and progressive work
environment between staff and managers.
We contributed to the overhaul of the performance management system.
The effort resulted in increased trust and accountability between management
and staff. The hoped-for alignment between competing interdivisional
interests has yet to be realized.
We have aggressively moved poor performing employees out of long-held
positions. Nearly 20 of these employees are either no longer managers
or no longer with the company. Many have been replaced by managers and
staff members who are regularly recognized by the leadership and their
peers as making a significant contribution to our excellence.
We have intentionally promoted from within to create career paths
for aspiring leaders and retain much of the talent we have grown.
We have hosted community dialogues as well as diversity sessions where
readers can be heard by newsroom leadership and staff on topics critical
to their lives. Many of these sessions have produced stories or packages
of stories in the news pages of the paper.
The online operation has contributed in this
way: Developed a quick-turnaround culture.
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
Purchase of a popcorn machine and institution of Popcorn Fridays,
held monthly throughout the building.
Core values development and establishment of practices to keep those
values in every employee's mind.
Employee survey to benchmark employee perceptions about the workplace,
and a second to survey to measure our improvements.
New orientation program and period.
Training survey – to solicit employee input into the training opportunities
offered at the newspaper.
Increased communication opportunities – continue to fine-tune the
Bay Window, establish a computer kiosk where employees without a PC
workstation could access company information. (I.e. insurance, e-mail,
intranet, etc.)
South Bend Tribune (IN)
Daily Circulation: 72,186
Sunday Circulation: 101,204
Cross departmental product reviews, quarterly staff
meetings, moved promotion department to center of building, collaborative
front page design, joint circulation/promotion/news meetings, in-paper
promotion same and future days.
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
Increased the number of contacts and communication between senior
management team and all departments in person, via newsletter and email
to reinforce the fact that we all are working together.
Offered company wide briefings on our biannual market survey.
Stanly News & Press (Albemarle,
NC)
Daily Circulation: 10,000
Sunday Circulation: 10,000
Trying to be a friendlier, courteous newspaper and staff, realizing
it is the readers' newspaper, not ours.
Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY)
Daily Circulation: 29,169
Sunday Circulation: 40,270
Newspaper is responsive to the community.
Department heads and management team involved in many community organizations.
Newspaper - as an institution and through its staff - plays a lead
role in improving the community.
The State (Columbia, SC)
Daily Circulation: 115,959
Sunday Circulation: 151,816
Knight Ridder attitude survey, Voices 2003, seeks
to link employee engagement with customer service and business results.
The State-Journal Register (Springfield,
IL)
Daily Circulation: 57,384
Sunday Circulation: 66,708
We have worked diligently to create a culture within
the newspaper that treats both employees and customers with respect.
We have created an atmosphere where department lines are “blurred” as
we work together on projects of importance to the newspaper in general,
such as the collaborative efforts between the advertising and editorial
departments. It has not always been this way.
As a newspaper, we exhibit a less “defensive” culture than we did
several years ago. Editorial department employees appear regularly on
radio and television programs that discuss their areas of expertise.
We listen to readers who have comments, complaints or praise, and
if necessary we make changes based on those comments. (The corrections
policy was instituted based on a reader complaint that we “buried” corrections.)
The State Journal-Register is not alone in doing so, but we always
include reporter contact information (phone number and e- mail address)
at the end of each local story. It has proven to be a great way for
us to get people to let us know if there is an error or if they have
something to add to the story (and in fact, providing the contact information
has generated a fair number of “follow-up” stories).
In addition, at the top of each section front page we run the name,
phone number and e- mail of the senior editor for that section.
Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
Daily Circulation: 55,886
Sunday Circulation: 63,255
Instituted ways to improve accountability for all employees.
Encouraged workers to be less risk-adverse and to think creatively
to develop ways to better serve our readers, advertisers and the community.
Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Daily Circulation: 255, 216
Sunday Circulation: 354,742
A company wide intranet was launched in 2001 to improve communication,
with content updated and posted daily, including daily industry headlines.
The company newsletter was also redesigned to improve its effectiveness.
Communication between our publisher and senior managers was improved
by instituting a series of small group meetings in 2002. A series of
town hall-style meetings also began for all employees at office locations.
A company wide Employee Suggestion program was launched in 2002 utilizing
the company intranet and other communication tools.
Supervisory and managerial talent continues to be upgraded through
emphasis on the Sun-Sentinel's Management Philosophy.
In the newsroom, regular staff meetings are held in which the editor
and managing editor keep staff members informed about newsroom operations
and receive input on how to improve the newsroom culture.
Daily critiques of the newspaper are published on our newsroom intranet
site – and we publish a weekly critique - acknowledging what we have
done well and constructively pointing out where we need to improve.
We run the editor's newspaper column on our intranet site that explains
our editorial policies and procedures.
We promote communication through a “newsroom without walls” that has
fully integrated multimedia operations.
We conduct regular forums with readers to obtain input on how to improve
the quality of the Sun-Sentinel.
We recognize and reward outstanding achievement through awards recognizing
our staffers.
We hold regular training sessions to upgrade journalistic skills.
We support intern programs, including a high school minority program
that helps in recruitment and in energizing the newsroom.
Thomasville Times-Enterprise (GA)
Daily Circulation: 9,590
Sunday Circulation: 9,459
Named promotion committee with employees from all departments to meet
weekly and develop promotion ideas.
Developed summary outline of research and communicated to all employees.
To further emphasize and keep fresh in their minds, we held a "Readership
Question of the Week" contest with prizes.
Times Union (Albany, NY)
Daily Circulation: 99,242
Sunday Circulation: 145,357
Our key newsroom initiative in 2003 has been an attempt to build an
adaptive, constructive culture. Top managers have attended retreats
and discussed efforts to increase collaboration and coordination across
departments. In some cases, this has required replacing key managers
in the effort to remake the newsroom culture, with the confidence that
this will be reflected in content that is more reader-focused.
The Titusville Herald (PA)
Daily Circulation: 4,065
Breaking down silos with monthly interdepartmental
meetings.
Traverse City Record-Eagle
(MI)
Daily Circulation: 29,341
Sunday Circulation: 40,199
We redefined our mission, vision and core value statements in an effort
to instill a pro customer culture at the Record-Eagle. Our brand/image
promotions reflect our mission statement.
Tri-City Herald (Pasco-Kennewick-Richland,
WA)
Daily Circulation: 40,993
Sunday Circulation: 44,782
Added feature content in areas of interest noted
in RI findings.
Re-designed and reorganized content to become easier
to read and to make it easier for readers to find specific content.
Daily Look Ahead feature; more extensive use of "ref boxes"
to tell readers of related stories elsewhere in paper.
Same day content promotion on section fronts.
The Union (Grass Valley, CA)
Daily Circulation: 15,871
Reader relevance is stressed daily at all points of the news-gathering,
editing and design process.
Performance review forms have been revised to explore several reader-oriented
issues.
Reader orientation is a major part of any hiring, compensation and
promotion decision.
Weekly newsroom newsletter by the editor reinforces reader orientation.
Newsroom personnel work with others interdepartmentally on content
and service issues important to readers.
Both formal training and daily performance feedback include a readership
focus.
The Union-Recorder (Milledgeville,
GA)
Daily Circulation: 7,439
All departments have developed a team mindset.
Avenue to exchange ideas is more open.
The Wichita Eagle (KS)
Daily Circulation: 92,721
Sunday Circulation: 148, 624
Developed high-profile, buildingwide task forces
to signal importance of circulation growth and reaching younger and
more diverse audiences, then acted on recommendations.
Senior management group read and and extensively discussed book "Execution"
by Bossidy and Charan.
Revived company newsletter to promote business literacy and sense
of community among employees.
Implemented more frequent presentations/letters to employees about
our business and what's behind actions we're taking.
