Daily Circulation: 45,538
Sunday Circulation: 48,730


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
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.

Brand
Not there yet.

Service
All calls returned within 24 hours. Editors more accessible and instructed in phone manners. In the process of establishing free services to subscribers to build brand loyalty (photo reprints, free access to web and archives, etc.).

Culture
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 e-mail to instantly communicate news, staff changes, etc.



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?
We have held several town meetings with small communities — even just neighborhoods — that brings us to the people. We write a major Sunday story that tells what it's like to live there. We follow that with a town meeting that includes a panel of government people (state, county, local) who can answer questions about specific problems in the community. The editor moderates a panel discussion and then opens questions to the floor. Problems can often be minor (speeding in the community, litter, vandalism, etc.) but they are major to the residents. We get lots of praise and everyone from the general manager to the circulation director are in attendance to greet people. Great time for feedback.



What is the most persuasive indication you have that your readership efforts are producing results?
So far, it's verbal feedback only. We hear a lot of good things, but we aren't seeing the numbers rise — yet.



What is the most important lesson you have learned as you have worked on readership in the last few years?
That we weren't listening to readers enough. Editors thought they had a better handle on what readers wanted when, in truth, we had no clue.



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?
Make the paper visually more attractive and appealing. Time, available manpower and talent are problems but also internal resistance to change.

Getting Traction on Readership

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