Daily Circulation: 552,052
Sunday Circulation: 744,935


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
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.

Brand
An entire Marketing/Branding campaign has been developed at the Houston Chronicle i.e. "Spotted Reading" which links all departmental initiatives i.e. Editorial, Advertising, Circulation, Marketing around serving our customers (readers and advertisers) by embracing the 8 Imperatives. "People On The Street" in Houston (ordinary people) are the stars of the campaign as they're "spotted" reading the newspaper, or looking for a job, buying a car, etc. from the ads in the paper, as well. "Spotted" tomorrow runs prominently in the Houston Chronicle, every day, in a fixed position, letting readers know the exciting content that's coming. The Houston Chronicle's "Spotted" campaign works the RI 8 Imperatives into all our "Branding" messages in-paper, on radio, and in our direct mail and TV promotions.

Service
We do a customer service survey among our home delivery subscribers every 6 months to determine our progress vis a vis our RI Imperatives.
We created a full-time, editorial "reader representative" position to deal with reader complaints on a daily basis. Our reader rep not only records and shares all complaints with editorial department heads, managing editors, etc., but also responds on a one-on-one basis to every reader via follow-up phone calls, e-mails, etc. We use our reader rep's reader complaint records to chart future strategy on our RI initiatives going forward.

Culture
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.



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?
I feel our comprehensive branding campaign "Spotted Reading", which links our customer (Readers and Advertisers) initiatives to the 8 RI Imperatives in all facets of our newspaper from Editorial to Advertising to Circulation to Marketing, is the most impactful.



What is the most persuasive indication you have that your readership efforts are producing results?
Our initial RBS tracking in the Houston market via surveys has not moved the readership needle yet but we're in the early stages of perfecting such measurements. We did, however, increase our long term subscription orders (6 and 12 months) significantly year over year i.e. over 8,000 more long-term orders 1st 6 months '03 vs. '02.



What is the most important lesson you have learned as you have worked on readership in the last few years?
Readership growth is a company-wide issue and it needs the support and understanding of all departments of a newspaper not just Editorial, Marketing and Circulation.



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?
The tough economic conditions have stifled the promotional spending needed to fully maximize our readership initiatives.

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