Daily Circulation: 10,000
Sunday Circulation: 10,000


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
First and second "bubba" interviews on matters of interest.

"What's Coming Up Tomorrow" subject in page one briefs each issue.

Softer, lighter sell on hard news stories.

As many local names as possible in an all-local news newspaper.

Using a rail on page one for briefs.

Process color photos on page one.

"Question of the Week" feature on the editorial page each Tuesday, with local photos and answers.

Brand
Developed and printed a free pamphlet for everyone on "How To Get Your News Into The Stanly News & Press."

Service
Getting the newspaper print time started at 11:30 a.m. to make the racks and dealers in town before the noon lunch crowd starts.

Began EZ pay plan for customers to pay by Visa or MasterCard credit card on the phone, both for subscriptions and classifieds.

Trying to find a way to say "Yes" to printing all news releases.

Culture
Trying to be a friendlier, courteous newspaper and staff, realizing it is the readers' newspaper, not ours.



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?
Producing a "Progress" edition with people from all over the county being photographed and telling us what they like most about their community.



What is the most persuasive indication you have that your readership efforts are producing results?
People mention they saw something in the newspaper, and more importantly, say they learned something. However, we do not see circulation increases with our efforts, primarily because of the current high unemployment rate.



What is the most important lesson you have learned as you have worked on readership in the last few years?
Be innovative, adjust to your local market, and use tact when persuading your editorial staff to sign on to the Readership Initiatives.



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?
Be able to get the little story behind the big story, but staff size and time limits our efforts there. Investigatory pieces and two- or three-day running series on a subject could help peak reader interest.

Getting Traction on Readership

Survey Responses by Topic & Newspaper