Daily Circulation: 15,871


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
Redesign was focused on readership research findings, including easy-to-read elements; features showcasing ordinary people, obituaries and community news; in-paper content promotion.

Used a copy editor position to create a Design Editor job to be an advocate for the new design, and design all section fronts for maximum reader impact.

Evaluation of story categories with the most potential to grow readership (using both quantitative and qualitative research), then realigning reporter beats along those categories.

Launched new content based on readership potential, including a Learning Page; Business Page; Golf Page; expanded arts/entertainment tab to add more about restaurants, tips for weekend visitors (we are a weekend getaway destination for tourists), and events in nearby cities (Reno/Tahoe and Sacramento); daily events calendar; fishing column; skiing column.

Used an assistant city editor position to create a Readership Editor, with three purposes-solve a horrendous customer service problem by coordinating reader contacts (phone, email, in-person) under one editor; coordinate and edit all contributions by readers, community contributors and free-lancers; and be a reader advocate in all news planning and strategy discussions.

Evaluated the success of content initiatives through quantitative research; comments via subscription renewal questionnaires; community feedback via multiple sources; tracking web readership by story; tracking single copy sales day-to-day.

Brand
The editor started a weekly column focused on explaining the newspaper's efforts to improve, announcing new content and service initiatives, and discussion issues of journalistic ethics.

To deal with a serious error problem, a system was established to track the reasons for corrections and develop ways to prevent their cause.

Invited and accelerated speaking engagements in the community by top editors to explain the changes, why they were being undertaken, and to gather community feedback.

Through an effort to push breaking news onto our Web site at any time, we seek to take advantage of our strength as the only daily in the county to be seen as the primary news source around the clock, not just in the morning.

Service
By stressing on-time page closings, we have dramatically improve press starts and thus helped lower delivery complaints.

An emphasis on staff courtesy to readers has drastically reduced complaints about unreturned calls, rudeness, etc.

Culture:
Reader relevance is stressed daily at all points of the news-gathering, editing and design process.

Performance review forms have been revised to explore several reader-oriented issues.

Reader orientation is a major part of any hiring, compensation and promotion decision.

Weekly newsroom newsletter by the editor reinforces reader orientation.

Newsroom personnel work with others interdepartmentally on content and service issues important to readers.

Both formal training and daily performance feedback include a readership focus.



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?
The naming of the Readership Editor position. It has reaped benefits in so many areas relating to all areas of readership growth.

Hired an Editor (Richard Somerville) from the Readership Institute.



What is the most persuasive indication you have that your readership efforts are producing results?
Our subscriber invoices encourage feedback and the feedback indicates we are moving in the right direction.

Although we just completed a market readership survey, which included an RBS benchmark, we have begun hearing spontaneous comments by readers that they see improvement, and to keep it up. Also, our reader comment cards, filled out by re-subscribers, have gone from being overwhelmingly negative to overwhelmingly positive. We plan to do the RBS in 6 months.

Circulation and single copy sales remain flat despite a growing community. Part of that may relate to the fact that our survey showed that of those who do not subscribe, 62% used to be subscribers. In other words, we may need to do a better job of getting out the word that the newspaper is better than it used to be. Also, we are in a very wired community, and noticeable surges of web readership in the past year (perhaps from a wave of dot-com refugees from the Bay Area) may be suppressing our sales.

Steps are being taken to measure and eventually act in that area.



What is the most important lesson you have learned as you have worked on readership in the last few years?
You don't change a newsroom culture overnight. Getting a traditional newsroom to view readers as "customers" has been quite challenging.

That growing readership MUST be a whole-newspaper effort. Newspapers that leave it just to the newsroom - who do not give new content initiatives promotional or advertising support - are just shooting in the dark. Cultural change is difficult, and is multiplied so when all departments are not involved, or do not think it is their job.



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?
Measure customer service. Perhaps there is some sort of survey, or tool we can use to measure our progress as we try to move to the "excellent zone" in terms of customer service.

Create more of a buzz in the community about how improved the newspaper is. Part of that is lack of promotional money in a down economy. But lack of funds can be overcome with creative thinking throughout the newspaper, if there is the will to do so.

Getting Traction on Readership

Survey Responses by Topic & Newspaper