Daily Circulation: 30,555
Sunday Circulation: 32,836


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

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

Total redesign of newspaper

Brand
Revamped and greatly improved online Web site

Expanded community outreach, particularly with reporters and editors making more contact with public

Reproduction, paper, ink and type size all No. 1 priorities so that we have an attractive, readable product

Service
Expanded circulation hours

Conducted phone training in all departments

Quadrupled the number of "How to reach us" directories and in-content material

Culture
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



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?
Launched Today's Family. It is a publication aimed at giving readers of all ages, but particularly parents and children, practical news they can use. Features include a local pediatrician's column, local guidance counselor column, and column on drug prevention. We have taken one theme per issue and built the issue around that. For example, the fall magazine will be all about back-to-school information and issues.



What is the most persuasive indication you have that your readership efforts are producing results?
The feedback we get from our reader advisory board and from the public in general. We are getting more positive feedback because of the changes we have made. Our circulation has shown a slight increase over the last year, even though our population is on the downturn.



What is the most important lesson you have learned as you have worked on readership in the last few years?
That we cannot take the reader for granted. The light reader is so important to our future. We need to try to get our light readers to become heavy readers.



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 our writing stronger. We are still not there, but we are making strides. We are conducting in-house training and now tracking the number of narrative-style and ordinary people reporting we do every week. It is an ongoing effort. The biggest roadblock is lack of enough time for training.

Getting Traction on Readership

Survey Responses by Topic & Newspaper