Daily Circulation: 283,194
Sunday Circulation: 343,414


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
Newsroom focused on high-potential content areas. (local news, entertainment news, community happenings)

Newsroom redesigned paper to make it easier to read and more navigable.

Focused on improving advertising content within entertainment sections.

More consistent and explicit in-paper content promotion.

Brand
Built Bee brand by developing extensive in-paper content promotion focusing on daily and upcoming content, special features as well as editorial personalities.

Developed overall Bee brand creative campaign to communicate brand attributes to readers and advertisers.

Leveraged Bee brand by establishing media alliances with local TV and radio stations.

Leveraged Bee brand by building partnerships with major community events/activities. (i.e. Kings, State Fair, etc.)

Launched new products--weekend entertainment section and sacticket.com Web site.

Service
Launched company wide task force to focus on customer service.

Developed company wide training program on customers service.

Circulation initiatives geared at building "world class" service.

Culture
Discussions with top management team on culture issues and the development of strategies to address the culture issue.

Leadership training focused on situational leadership and implementation of 360 degree performance feedback.



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?
Our in-paper promotion of upcoming content has been well received and tested particularly strong in the most recent round of market research.

Alliance with a local, network-affiliated TV news station to promote upcoming Bee content.



What is the most persuasive indication you have that your readership efforts are producing results?
A readership study, conducted for The Bee in April by American Opinion Research, showed that 75% of adults in the market read The Bee during an average week, higher than the national average reported by NAA.

The RBS score reported for The Bee was 3.84, compared to the national average of 3.24.



What is the most important lesson you have learned as you have worked on readership in the last few years?
Increasing readership must be a company-wide initiative. It needs to be driven from the top of the organization but also requires the integrated efforts of all divisions.



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?
We've been slow to tackle the cultural issues surrounding readership, especially those peculiar to the newsroom.

Getting Traction on Readership

Survey Responses by Topic & Newspaper