Daily Circulation: 12,682
Sunday Circulation: 14,515


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.
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.



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?
Frankly, to this point we have been copying some of the things others have done who started sooner than we did.



What is the most persuasive indication you have that your readership efforts are producing results?
None that can be documented as yet, but people have noticed and remarked on differences even though we still have a way to go. Readers noticing and seeing changes as improvements is a good start.



What is the most important lesson you have learned as you have worked on readership in the last few years?
Culture and old school ways of thinking are formidable obstacles.



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?
It's frustratingly hard to make progress when you have to put out a paper every day. I told the publisher I could implement the improvements that he agreed we wanted, if he would let me do nothing but that for 9 months. Guess what... that's not possible. So we prioritize and keep plugging away.

Getting Traction on Readership

Survey Responses by Topic & Newspaper