Daily Circulation: 223,957
Sunday Circulation: 306,102


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.

Content
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.

Brand
In process: first brainstorming session with a local advertising agency took place in June. This effort will coincide with the launch of our new presses.

Service
New circulation system will greatly improve our circulation customer service.

New presses will give readers what they’ve been asking for, which is anchoring, better reproduction and no ink rub off.

Culture
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.



What is the most innovative, successful or noteworthy thing you have done on readership that you think other papers might learn from or want to emulate?
Aggressive in house promotion from daily to Sunday and from Sunday to daily.

Monthly readership training sessions to employees

In process: redesign of sections using the 8 imperatives as the framework.



What is the most persuasive indication you have that your readership efforts are producing results?
Unable to answer at this time. Our benchmark RBS was conducted in February 2003 and will be repeated annually. That is the measure we will use.



What is the most important lesson you have learned as you have worked on readership in the last few years?
Implementation of ALL imperatives is critical to our overall success. Focusing on only one or two areas will not increase readership.



What would you like to do on readership that you have not been able to do and why haven't you been able to do it?
Would like to be able to implement strategies and tactics that may not have immediate quantitative results but would have a high probability for readership gains in the long run. — We haven’t been able to do this because the culture is more focused on short-term solutions and ROI.

Getting Traction on Readership

Survey Responses by Topic & Newspaper