Readership Institute: Getting Traction on Readership: Most Successful & Innovative Initiatives

Question: 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?

Aiken Standard (SC)
Daily Circulation: 13,364
Sunday Circulation: 14,066

We are trying to get our readers more involved by being a part of the newspaper and its content. More than a year ago we started running a photo from the past that we call Portraits of the Past. These are pictures from Aiken County's past, and we solicited additional photos from our readers. The response was overwhelming. We soon had a backlog of well over a month (Portraits of the Past is a daily feature with one picture running each day). The pictures continue to come in, and readers constantly remark about photos of the people and places of Aiken County's past. A lot of them are baseball team pictures, family portraits or photos of old buildings that no longer exist. But most readers look at the pictures each day.

Akron Legal News (OH)
Daily Circulation: 700

We started targeting college students, a previously untapped market for us.

Altus Times (OK)
Daily Circulation: 4,749
Sunday Circulation: 4,749

The efforts we have made in building organizational culture have been very worthwhile. It has helped employees buy into what we are doing and feel a sense of ownership in our newspaper.

Anchorage Daily News (AK)
Daily Circulation: 69,607
Sunday Circulation: 85,944

The redesign was very successful in many ways. Two elements of that that other newspapers could employ are to improve the quality of local photos and play them more strongly. (Many newspapers appear to underestimate the power of outstanding photography to attract readers.) And build daily promotion of coming content into the design of every section front.

Anderson Independent-Mail (SC)
Daily Circulation: 38,576
Sunday Circulation: 44,194

Our most successful effort has been the launch of the daily Local News section, which is zoned with local news in three geographical circulation zones targeted at distinct readership markets.

Our most innovative effort has been the launch of a new feature dubbed “Fifteen Minutes With...” The feature incorporates “ordinary people” in a photo and Q&A format. It has allowed us to bring new faces and short stories about people of color, small business owners, hobbyists, homemakers and other relatively unknown personalities with interesting stories and backgrounds into our readership mix. It balances the day-to-day coverage we provide on other community and business leaders.

Atlanta Journal Constitution (GA)
Daily Circulation: 460, 672
Sunday Circulation: 620,782

As mentioned above, this launch was readership driven from the outset. Our previous entertainment section was doing fine financially, but readership was eroding. The audience was aging with the readership of the paper as a whole and we were not drawing new, younger readers. To figure out how to address this problem, we developed and remained committed to a research plan that included qualitative and quantitative studies and called for consumer feedback through formal and informal focus groups throughout the development process. Since the launch, we have continued this quest for reader feedback by holding follow-up focus groups to see if our content was hitting the mark and have planned a follow-up telephone survey to measure readership of, and satisfaction with, our entertainment coverage.

Austin American-Statesman (TX)
Daily Circulation: 183,288
Sunday Circulation: 233,608

Investing in staff helps retain good people, attract good people and translates into good work readers appreciate. (See the description of our innovative newsroom training program in the "culture" segment above.)

Improved communication between news, promotions and circulation departments helps.

Comprehensive and thoughtful promotion of content helps.

The Bakersfield Californian (CA)
Daily Circulation: 71,495
Sunday Circulation: 82,718

Working with a consultant, we have kicked off a companywide "readership" project that touches every corner of the company, making readership something that everyone owns, not just the newsroom. This is recently under way but holds great promise.

The Baytown Sun (TX)
Daily Circulation: 11,545
Sunday Circulation: 11,265

We studied best practices elsewhere and adapted the appropriate ones into our market. Although it's not really innovative, the "just say yes" attitude has gained the most reader/advertiser feedback. Previously, this paper's culture was authoritarian in nature, founded on too many negatives. We instituted a can-do policy and abolished barriers to reader participation such as a barbaric telephone system and tedious voice mail prompts. We eliminated lengthy, scolding rules about letters to the editor, accepting submitted photos and deadlines and recast them into guidelines and suggestions about publication. The new attitude was codified in a process-color brochure with step-by-step information on how to get news into the newspaper, including contact information and points of entry, samples of news items, calendar items, business briefs and youth sports reports. The brochures are available in our lobby, distributed to civic organizations and government entities, handed out by reporters and outside sales representatives and mailed annually to all advertisers.

Beaver County Times (Beaver, PA)
Daily Circulation: 42,778
Sunday Circulation: 48,875

Our redesign capitalizes on what we perceive to be indigenous visual values.

Brattleboro Reformer (VT)
Daily Circulation: 11,655

Still developing our plans, but the regular feature of an ordinary citizen has been a real success.

Bucks County Courier Times (Levittown, PA)
Daily Circulation: 67,094
Sunday Circulation: 73,252

Organization of community news and weekly listings into a weekly section which also offers the public the opportunity to submit photos and information for publication.

The addition of community columnists has evoked response from readers.

Added daily story obituaries

The Buffalo News (NY)
Daily Circulation: 223,957
Sunday Circulation: 306,102

Aggressive in house promotion from daily to Sunday and from Sunday to daily.

Monthly readership training sessions to employees.

In process: redesign of sections using the 8 imperatives as the framework.

Burlington Free Press (VT)
Daily Circulation: 50,203
Sunday Circulation: 60,264

The Burlington Free Press can offer a strong case study for FOI training. The newsroom organized three FOI training courses in 2002. A metro editor was assigned as the FOI expert. A book was created with all FOI letters and responses, which became a standard reference for all reporters to learn how to use leverage of the law to get information the public deserved to know. Not only was the newspaper recognized with national awards including the George Polk awards, but our public service changed state law to give health consumers greater knowledge of physician competence by opening up state records. The response and involvement from the community, including the many letters to the editor, let us know that our relevant local coverage paid off in terms of readership.

The Capital (Annapolis, MD)
Daily Circulation: 45,538
Sunday Circulation: 48,730

We have held several town meetings with small communities - even just neighborhoods - that brings us to the people. We write a major Sunday story that tells what it's like to live there. We follow that with a town meeting that includes a panel of government people (state, county, local) who can answer questions about specific problems in the community. The editor moderates a panel discussion and then opens questions to the floor. Problems can often be minor (speeding in the community, litter, vandalism, etc.) but they are major to the residents. We get lots of praise and everyone from the general manager to the circulation director are in attendance to greet people. Great time for feedback.

Cleburne Times-Review (TX)
Daily Circulation: 7,447
Sunday Circulation: 7,447

We have worked hard on becoming as local and community oriented as possible with our coverage. In doing so, we have received great feedback from our customers. We leave the Associated Press coverage to the larger metropolitan newspapers. Instead of attempting to run the same state or nation issue as a larger paper, we take the same issue, whether it be the war in Iraq or West Nile Virus, and localize it in some way to fit our community.

Clinton Herald (IA)
Daily Circulation: 12,254

The construction of our front page has become more reader-friendly and directs people inside.

Corsicana Daily Sun (TX)
Daily Circulation: 7,079
Sunday Circulation: 7,079

We placed every employee both FT and PT on one of the committees, Content, Brand, Service, Culture, and gave them the opportunity to be part of the goal setting process for improved readership.

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
Daily Circulation: 217,396
Sunday Circulation: 282,072

By most accounts, our Health & Fitness section has hit the mark. It is intensely local and the design of the section is compelling. It is full of information that readers find useful. Readers have indicated that they appreciate the local faces and names of doctors and others featured in the publication. It enables them to make a stronger connection to the publication.

Craig Daily Press (CO)
Daily Circulation: 2,817

Our new column entitled "Bleeding the Black Ink," which is a forum for the Craig Daily Press editor to bring journalism issues to the public and to explain and provoke discussion from readers about the issues as we see and perceive them and how they affect our ability to do our jobs each day. For example, we discuss everything from political advertising policies to correction policies and it has helped to bring our readers into closer touch with the newspaper staff.

The Crescent-News (Defiance, OH)
Daily Circulation: 17,615
Sunday Circulation: 18,524

We pack our sports pages with names of local people. This includes everything from Little League to bowling to coverage of the local college teams.

Crossville Chronicle (TN)
Circulation: Three issues weekly: Tue: 19,000; Wed: 8,500; Fri: 8,500

During the war in Iraq, we featured a service man or woman in each issue on the front page entitled "Proudly Serving." It was a good move because families with loved ones received community response when it became widely known that their loved one was in harm's way. More than one family told the editor that they appreciated the recognition; they received cards from the community and their loved ones were added to prayer lists which made them feel good.

Cullman Times (AL)
Daily Circulation: 10,827
Sunday Circulation: 11,378

Our people profiles are popular. Quick reads, with photo and interesting personal info on the subjects.

Cumberland Times-News (MD)
Daily Circulation: 30,555
Sunday Circulation: 32,836

Launched Today's Family. It is a publication aimed at giving readers of all ages, but particularly parents and children, practical news they can use. Features include a local pediatrician's column, local guidance counselor column, and column on drug prevention. We have taken one theme per issue and built the issue around that. For example, the fall magazine will be all about back-to-school information and issues.

Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA)
Daily Circulation: 73,209
Sunday Circulation: 71,492

Three zones with a second local front page on page three. Local used to be in the B Section.

Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)
Daily Circulation: 33,021
Sunday Circulation: 40,834

The multi-departmental, volunteer task forces, built around the 8 imperatives. It's broad-reaching and inclusive. It helps to build a more constructive culture. It encourages buy-in from every department.

The Daily Courier (Forest City, NC)
Daily Circulation: 9,504
Sunday Circulation: 9,504

Expanded local coverage.

Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, MA)
Daily Circulation: 18,445

We created an 8-page “Day in the life of the Gazette” handout and accompanying ad campaign which explained what each department of the paper related to the reader. The full color pages used original cartoon-style art.

The Daily News (Longview, WA)
Daily Circulation: 22,350
Sunday Circulation: 21,704

Gotten more names and faces into the paper... more "Refrigerator Art" as we call it.

The Daily News (Rhinelander, WI)
Daily Circulation: 5,033
Sunday Circulation: 5,557

One of the best things we have done is very simple. We moved the newsroom from the front office area, where there was often noise from customers and business and advertising offices, to a quieter, more secluded area of the office. This has created an atmosphere which is more conducive to concentration and has reduced many of the content errors that we battled for many years. We also have a wider base of involvement in community and the area.

Daily Press (Newport News-Hampton, VA)
Daily Circulation: 92,434
Sunday Circulation: 115,985

Reorganized so that customer service is under Marketing.

The VP of Marketing and the VP of Operations both have responsibility for circulation.

Use of cross-departmental employee teams to address readership issues of branding, customer service issues such as billing, and readership.

The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA)
Daily Circulation: 30,281
Sunday Circulation: 34,234

Redesign emphasis on local news.

The Daily Times (Farmington, NM)
Daily Circulation: 17,738
Sunday Circulation: 19,328

All our initiatives have been driven by recommendations of the Readership Institute. Nothing is particularly innovative or new. In my opinion all have been successful.

Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
Daily Circulation: 100,582
Sunday Circulation: 117,854

The creation of our "readership committee" to uncover Phase 1 changes (without additional newshole/staff) then Phase 2 recommendations that may include new expenses. Within a short time, many of phase 1 suggestions have already been implemented. These are actionable changes that have inspired the staff internally, plus are motivators to help build readership.

Deming Headlight (NM)
Daily Circulation: 3,541

We changed the format on our TMC product to have a real news front with a recap of the week's top news stories.

The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA)
Daily Circulation: 46,497
Sunday Circulation: 49,171

One year ago we launched Snapshots, a weekly 6-page section filled entirely with photographs of local community events and everyday life shots that you typically don't find in newspapers. In Snapshots you'll find your kids' ballet recital, a Saturday soccer match, a spontaneous round of play in the community water fountain in front of the movie theatre, fun at the doggy park and local, local events your neighbors might have attended. Twenty local businesses sponsor Snapshots and receive a strip ad once per month in the section. The proceeds, after section expenses, go to our NIE nonprofit fund to purchase newspapers for area schools. In addition to the strip ad, sponsors receive one-quarter page ad each month thanking the business for supporting Newspapers in Education. Since its launch, Tuesday single copy sales have increased 3% or an average of 500 newspapers. We have also received a significant amount of positive feedback from community members, moms and even school-aged kids who see themselves in the newspaper more often.

The Detroit News and Free Press (MI)
Daily Circulation: 547,506
Sunday Circulation: 738,709

Over the past few years we have established a comprehensive third party sales program. Before undertaking any such programs, they must meet these three criteria: Getting our newspapers into the hands of more readers to build permanent readership for the future. Providing additional and valuable exposure for advertisers. Promoting the newspapers via point of purchase materials, PA announcements, and other means.

Programs have included: Distribution of newspapers with meals at large restaurant chains. Development of an effective waiting room program, with an emphasis on auto dealers. Distribution of newspapers at targeted sports venues and other newspaper-sponsored events. Sponsored sampling to non-subscribing households in targeted areas.

Each piece distributed includes a specific circulation offer.

East Valley Tribune (Mesa-Scottsdale-Tempe, AZ)
Daily Circulation: 96,221
Sunday Circulation: 80,192

The cultural shift in defining our market, studying our market, interacting with our market and then reshaping the newspaper section by section, page by page to serve readers in the community with the thought of how we can make readers more successful in their own lives and better able to shape their community.

The Edmond Sun (OK)
Daily Circulation: 10,415
Sunday Circulation: 10,415

Readers Speak: We have a database of more than 160 local e-mail addresses. Questions of a local, state or national nature are sent out once or twice weekly, and we try to print everything we get within reason.

Enterprise-Journal (McComb, MS)
Daily Circulation: 11,492
Sunday Circulation: 12,083

To be honest, we are just getting started on this. We're a good ways from doing anything innovative.

Evansville Courier & Press (IN)
Daily Circulation: 68,867
Sunday Circulation: 96,506

Begin with zero-based strategic planning. Convince yourself that what you have done for 30 years is in the past. While it is institutional knowledge, it is not necessarily a roadmap to what needs to be done in the future.

Gainesville Daily Register (TX)
Daily Circulation: 5,814
Sunday Circulation: 5,814

Moving our press time up one hour was successful.

The Gleaner (Henderson, KY)
Daily Circulation: 10, 452
Sunday Circulation: 11,837

The frequent "letter to the editor" writer profiles.

Improving access to the sports pages by recreational sports (names and faces).

Community face to face surveys by all employees.

Hannibal Courier-Post (MO)
Daily Circulation: 8,350

No one thing can be isolated. We are simply trying very hard to become an integral part of our reader's lives. We want them to make the time to read our products. If one thing were to be selected, it would be our Web site that now brings our products to the Internet. We are now the busiest Web site in this region with 1,500,000 highly filtered page views per month.

Herald-Banner (Greenville, TX)
Daily Circulation: 8,239
Sunday Circulation: 9,224

We are in a unique situation, in that the single most important thing we have done to enhance readership had nothing to do with the RI, although the study obviously brought to light other things that have, and will, help us drive readership. Our big initiative: We woke up! We had been a sleepy paper, good at covering meetings and rewriting press releases, but now we vigorously dig for stories, and it has paid off. People are talking about what they read in the H-B, and we have impacted city policies and elections as well. But the proof is in the pudding, and that's covered in question 3.

The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC)
Daily Circulation: 50,015
Sunday Circulation: 56,612

News: "On your side" efforts such as Steamed, Street Smarts and potholes.

Circulation: Implemented process controls in counting, handling and distributing newspapers to improve the quality of our Sunday insert package

The Houston Chronicle (TX)
Daily Circulation: 552,052
Sunday Circulation: 744,935

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.

Johnson City Press (TN)
Daily Circulation: 29,909
Sunday Circulation: 34,152

Having just been here a year since our new ownership took over, most of our moves have been to position ourselves internally through reorganization. We've also eliminated our printing on an antiquated letterpress and are now printed on offset. Regarding anything successful and innovative, I can only state that strong leadership in our news room from a new managing editor has the entire staff pointed in the right direction. The staff was "wondering" and now they have direction and purpose.

The Journal Times (Racine, WI)
Daily Circulation: 29,216
Sunday Circulation: 31,334

Perhaps the biggest change is in mindset, deciding to publish a newspaper that offers different or unique content rather than following the pack by merely taking the top of the wires, thereby offering most readers what they probably already know from other media.

Kerrville Daily Times (TX)
Daily Circulation: 8,663
Sunday Circulation: 10,463

Conducted readership survey of features, columns and comics. Those with low readership were replaced.

Knoxville News Sentinel (TN)
Daily Circulation: 128,865
Sunday Circulation: 153,718

Set up a diversity task force to evaluate and monitor how we cover and serve our minority communities.

We pursued every opportunity to produce and distribute microzone copies in the communities where all types of special events take place. This builds new revenue and creates new partnerships with a multitude of retailers in the process.

Created a content sampling program targeted to non-subscribing households (exercised ABC third party rules).

More emphasis on group-thinking and universal participation with cross-functional teams.

Lancaster New Era (PA)
Daily Circulation: 43,194
Sunday Circulation: 102,339

Use of story summaries on front section pages to lead readers into the paper.

Lincoln Journal Star (NE)
Daily Circulation: 74,586
Sunday Circulation: 83,387

Our school strategy. People can't get enough about their schools so we give them a great deal of information. We have dedicated pages on Sunday and Monday.

The Manhattan Mercury (KS)
Daily Circulation: 10,125
Sunday Circulation: 11,450

The daily "briefing" has been well-received by light readers. It's difficult to do right, but can serve a good purpose.

McAlester News-Capital & Democrat (OK)
Daily Circulation: 10,053
Sunday Circulation: 10,515

Focused heavily on putting stories in our paper that the readership survey says are what readers want.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Daily Circulation: 232,652
Sunday Circulation: 434,023

Recognizing that readership leads to revenue through advertising and circulation, we built our strategic focus around the four cornerstones of readership. Top level executives clearly and consistently communicate the plan and our readership focus. This is a consistent theme and we walk the talk as well as talk the talk.

Understanding that our major challenge is to increase RBS among young, light readers, we focus our strategic efforts on that important target group. We measure and track the perception and behavior of this group compared to other segments.

We worked to understand and leverage advertising as a readership driver, which is especially strong in our market. We conducted a follow-up study and measured the opportunity to grow readership by categories of advertising. This study showed us which advertising categories have the potential to grow readership among our target reader groups.

Monroe Evening News (MI)
Daily Circulation: 21,771
Sunday Circulation: 24,956

Starting the weekly in one of our communities. We had to acknowledge our weaknesses in the area and try to address them with something really different. It has given us a lock on that area that we didn't have before. After two years it is still almost universally popular.

Montgomery Advertiser (AL)
Daily Circulation: 50,763
Sunday Circulation: 62,137

While we have taken many steps, we have two to suggest. We emulated the Lee Enterprise tool kit with Coming Sunday and Coming Tomorrow referencing key topics important to our target audiences. Week of July 7 we received over a dozen calls related to a story teased in the prior day that was unable to run in all the editions of our newspaper. The other suggestion is moving the Culture toward the adaptive constructive culture. We've clarified our Mission, developed our first Vision statement, and our first steps have been geared to reducing turnover, which has reduced from levels above 40% from 1998-2000 to 22.6% in 2002 and YTD 19.2% in 2003. We've focused on training, development, succession planning, dozens of communication and collaborative techniques, empowerment and operational planning from the bottom up.

New Haven Register (CT)
Daily Circulation: 81,469
Sunday Circulation: 101,374

The new weekend section - which went to a new format (tabloid) and highlights areas of interest for our younger readers.

News & Record (Greensboro, NC)
Daily Circulation: 90,432
Sunday Circulation: 110,846

In one of our major growth areas, we have assembled a large collection of community columnists who write about the joys and sorrows and events in their neighborhoods. It has built good will, serendipity and we know readership is growing. It is not particularly innovative, but our execution and focus has been noteworthy.

The News Enterprise (Elizabethtown, KY)
Daily Circulation: 16,073
Sunday Circulation: 19,483

Conducting the credibility round tables.
Creating the community news team.

The Norman Transcript (OK)
Daily Circulation: 15,198
Sunday Circulation: 16,695

Probably the job-shadowing program. Over the course of four weeks voluntary participants spend time in other areas to watch/discuss what goes on there to help understanding of others' roles and improve communication.

North County Times (Escondido-Oceanside, CA)
Daily Circulation: 92,490
Sunday Circulation: 93,337

Easy Pay: Absolutely critical for future success of newspaper industry in post-telemarketing world. Cuts churn in half. Doubles value of new orders. We underestimated the demand for this service. Just crossed 60% of home delivery and continues to rise. About 80% of new sales are Easy-Pay.

Unfettered letters section. Print every letter you can legally print. Must read connection with community. Agenda setter. Opens paper.

Local emphasis: intense zoning, local topics, community news. Local is our franchise.

Norwich Bulletin (CT)
Daily Circulation: 27,916
Sunday Circulation: 32,304

At the Newsroom Summit, a wallet-size card was distributed bearing the newsroom mantra, "Local People Are Our Franchise" and the Readership Institute's top nine high-potential content areas. Every reporter, photographer and editor carries this with them at all times.

Observer-Dispatch (Utica, NY)
Daily Circulation: 45,916
Sunday Circulation: 53,629

Weekly outdoors section called GO! It manages to capture young readers without alienating older readers. Besides providing detailed how/where/how much information on outdoor activities (cross country skiing, kayaking, hiking, nature walks), it also recaps entertainment and dining options for the weekend.

The Olathe News (KS)
Daily Circulation: 5,789

We've given up on trying to beat the Kansas City Star, and are focusing exclusively on local. It's not revolutionary, but it's working.

The Olympian (Olympia, WA)
Daily Circulation: 37,473
Sunday Circulation: 45,336

Adding a daily outdoors presentation. While we have no empirical research as yet, reader feedback has been significant.

Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Daily Circulation: 256,520
Sunday Circulation: 376,878

El sentinel project is noteworthy if you have a sizable Hispanic population.

The High School sports niche is very loyal and engaged.

5:30 delivery is essential in markets with long commuting times.

Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, IN)
Daily Circulation: 10,112
Sunday Circulation: 10,806

In October 2002, XL marketing began a research circulation project with the Logansport Pharos-Tribune. Over the course of the next five months, XL marketing provided an initial needs assessment, gathered current promotions and reviewed the Logansport Pharos-Tribune's marketing plans for 2002 & 03.

XL marketing then put together a database marketing project utilizing the resources of PBS Business Data, RBS Survey data, purchased a list of all residents in market area, Postal Soft software tool, Traffic counts, SIMON survey data and internal survey data. The first step was to provide the Logansport Pharos-Tribune with a full market analysis of all the available data licensed through Claritas. This included general demographics, PRIZM profile of the market, PRIZM segmentation targets based on their propensity to read a daily newspaper, and target geography based on propensity to read a daily newspaper.

XL marketing then took the PBS data, RBS data and purchased resident files and merge/purged the three together. Additional database analysis was completed to look at which customers were Logansport's best customers, how did they perform verses -Logansport's business rules and goals for the future, such as auto pay customers, who were they and what length of payment was best for them.

With the RBS data, XL Marketing looked at the light and medium reader verses heavy reader to see if the light reader was a single-copy reader or non-subscriber. This analysis was non-conclusive due to the small sample size of the RBS data and ability to only match on phone number to the other two files.

The results were that Logansport Pharos-Tribune gained a better understanding of their market area, customers and ended up with a master-prospecting database. This database included profiles of subscribers and non-subscribers coded with business rule attributes to help the target different segments of prospect database. This tool gives us the opportunity to test market campaigns on groups of people that share common attributes and see which campaigns they respond to best. The tool also provides the opportunity to see who our best customers are for a set of attributes and then located others within the database that share those same attributes.

Our initiative the first quarter of 2003 was to grow and retain circulation through internal factors rather than relying so heavily on outside sources such as telemarketing. Having made the decision to collaborate with the XL Marketing team and have a thorough demographic evaluation done with the use of Claritas information, we choose the zip codes in our delivery area that we wanted to focus on and had an evaluation done on the people that live there.

The information breaks down the total households in our delivery areas into Prizm Clusters. Each cluster represents the most common traits that groups of people have in common and gives us a good general idea of what would motivate them to subscribe to a newspaper. It tells us how many households are within specific areas, the percentage of those based on the cluster type that subscribe to a newspaper and how many subscribe to our newspaper. With this information we can determine if our penetration is deep enough and where we show room for growth.

We utilize the information with our internal telesales initiative. The customer service representatives are now responsible for producing a portion of the start pressure that is needed to grow circulation. The hours for the customer service representatives have changed to allow more phone sales to be done through the office. Our Saturday hours have been extended to allow the CSR's to telesales later into the afternoon. Saturdays have always been excellent times to phone solicit because of the number of people home on the weekend. Each representative has a monthly start goal that they must achieve. We have begun to target different clusters with tailored made sales scripts. These reflect that type information that we have learned about each cluster in the script. The types of features and stories that they would enjoy and what information they would want to see in the paper. The customer service representatives have been very open to the idea and we kicked off the preliminary sales with a customer service contest. The competition between the reps has been enjoyable to watch and is making getting the starts not only more profitable but also more fun for them.

We also have committed time everyday to something that we call rack recovery. The editorial department sends the single copy manager and myself a list of the top stories to appear in the following days paper. With this information we adjust our draws as needed for the following day, especially if something in that paper my target the interest of one of our cluster groups. For example, the commodity prices are going to be listed in a certain day's copy of the paper. We know this information is especially important to the farmers in the area; therefore we up the draws in the racks and vendor locations that our Claritas demographics tell us they buy from. We also check each rack location between 4:00 and 6:30 p.m. weekly and between 12:00 and 2:00 p.m. on the weekends to make sure that we have no racks that have sold out or are close to it. Thanks to the rack recovery we have been able to increase our single copy sales by about 100 copies a week since it started.

Currently, an authorized sample program is in place in all of the apartment complexes within our delivery area. The concept is to offer a free two-week sample of the paper to anyone who is interested (must not owe more than two graces in a past subscription). It is explained to the customer that their paper will be started like a normal subscription and that a two-week credit will automatically be applied to the account. They are also told that they will receive an invoice just like a new account. They will then be contacted by our offices within a few days of the end of the two-week period and asked if they want to continue with their delivery. If we cannot contact them by phone a letter is sent. They are also told that it is their responsibility at the end of the two weeks to stop the paper if they are no longer interested in receiving it and have not been contacted by our office. Out of every ten starts we are able to continue delivering to seven of them. No one seemed to be unhappy with the way in which it was set up because everything was well explained from the beginning.

We are also using our Claritas Prizm cluster information to target potential customers through direct mail campaigns. Because we know what their likes and dislikes are, where they live, and if they are likely to read a newspaper, we're confident our are new focused and scientific approach will continue to work well.

We have generated on average 125 new starts per month as a direct result of the Claritas information. It was well worth the investment.

Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
Daily Circulation: 101,288
Sunday Circulation: 113,999

Subscribers are very sensitive to changes in frequencies within their subscription packages.

Potomac News & Manassas Journal Messenger (VA)
Daily Circulation: 20,983
Sunday Circulation: 20,472

Introduced a magazine-like cover story approach to our Sunday newspaper to differentiate from competitors and provide readers with well-told stories they don't get from other sources. We let one story and art or in-depth package take up the front page and much of the inside of the Sunday A section. Plays very well on a major strength - photography. Offers deeper reporting than we typically do during the week and increases the number of extraordinary "ordinary" people stories.

Poughkeepsie Journal (NY)
Daily Circulation: 39,984
Sunday Circulation: 51,067

The building-wide committees we created to address readership issues (see "Culture" in Question 1).

Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
Daily Circulation: 34,706
Sunday Circulation: 39,863

This is not innovative, but it works for us. We offer serialized stories during the school year. Teachers love it, but so do the grandparents!

We hold "meet the newspaper" meetings in various communities throughout the year. When a community is mad at us, they show up in force and let us know and they are just as willing to share positive comments. These meetings are easy to do and bring good return.

We bring in a "guest editor" once a month to sit in during the daily story meetings.

We had all directors, supervisors, and managers go out to key locations in the community and interview people with readership questions to see if we are meeting their needs. This was part of our strategic plan initiative and was a great learning experience for all of us.

We also recognize a reader a day on our front page. Our publisher calls the reader to let them know that we're saying "Good Morning!" to them on the front page.

The Reporter (Vacaville, CA)
Daily Circulation: 17,575
Sunday Circulation: 19,143

I think our game is unique. It's a fun way to inspire people to work together. It has been amazing to see people really thinking about making connections with readers and how empowering it is when they learn that others will cooperate with them, even if it's just for points. Some people think the game concept is silly, but once they start talking to readers, they're hooked.

Richmond Register (KY)
Daily Circulation: 7,288
Sunday Circulation: 7,704

We began running "In other business" information from government meetings in a pull-out box format. Readers have responded very positively to this move and we feel it is one of the easiest ways to make meeting stories more readable.

Also, we began providing readers with promos and teasers for upcoming stories and series, which has brought new readers to the paper and others back to the paper.

Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Daily Circulation: 187,409
Sunday Circulation: 228,262

Managing Editor's model for staff-produced pieces (short leads, tighter stories), forward and same-day promotion of stories within and between sections.

The Roanoke Times (VA)
Daily Circulation: 100,160
Sunday Circulation: 112,397

We focused on finding ways to make ordinary people and their lives a larger part of the newspaper to build stronger local connections to The Roanoke Times.

Rock Island Argus (IL)
Daily Circulation: 12,682
Sunday Circulation: 14,515

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

Rockford Register Star (IL)
Daily Circulation: 68,015
Sunday Circulation: 80,692

Content improvements.

Use of third party sales to get the newspaper into hands of non-regular readers.

Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
Daily Circulation: 304,949 (Mon-Fri); 621,221 (Mon-Sat)
Sunday Circulation: 789,137

I think our redesign places the emphasis on presenting content in the best way for readers.

The Sacramento Bee (CA)
Daily Circulation: 283,194
Sunday Circulation: 343,414

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.

The Saginaw News (MI)
Daily Circulation: 47,100
Sunday Circulation: 57,711

Our attitude, as manifest in the "rails" philosophy. We need to give our readers more delightful surprises, more unexpected fun, more things they wanted to find but didn't know they wanted to find them. We focus on solutions reporting in ways big and small. It helps that our newspaper has a "voice." We're your neighbor. When we edit our paper, we try to inject that feeling in what we do, how we do it and the tone we take in addressing our readers in print, on the phone and in our community service. We are just like our readers. What makes us different is that we have the aptitude and training (and it's our job) to keep them posted on everything worth knowing in our towns.

The San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Daily Circulation: 373,344
Sunday Circulation: 438,848

With the website, emphasized breaking local news, using local and state wires as well as early stories from the newspaper staff.

San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Daily Circulation: 479,433
Sunday Circulation: 539, 563

Development of Chron Watch provides a watch dog service to the readers. Future is anchored and follow-up is mandatory.

Developed first in the nation Wine section.

The Sanford Herald (NC)
Daily Circulation: 10,624
Sunday Circulation: 10, 461

Nothing yet.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
Daily Circulation: 106,594
Sunday Circulation: 133,750

Creation of Readership Editor as a full-time position focused on content promotion and points of reader contact, including our highly successful Reader Advocate program.

Savannah Morning News (GA)
Daily Circulation: 56,599
Sunday Circulation: 70,137

The most innovative thing we've done is to purchase a popcorn machine and instituted “Popcorn Fridays” once a month. A different department “hosts” the event each month and employees are invited to stop by for free popcorn. The most successful thing we've done is to promote upcoming daily feature coverage to the high readership of women in the Sunday paper. We also increased the promotion of upcoming feature coverage in our TMC products. The most noteworthy thing we have done is the work on our core values. When employees are more satisfied with their work, when they feel better about the work they do, they will do a better job of satisfying customer needs, thereby boosting readership and profitability.

South Bend Tribune (IN)
Daily Circulation: 72,186
Sunday Circulation: 101,204

Stressed local news and features identified as high interest by formal content survey. Changed newsroom approach to gage success by circulation numbers and survey readership findings.

The Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, IL)
Daily Circulation: 28,267
Sunday Circulation: 36,381

Zoning. Zeroing in on customers.

The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Daily Circulation: 118,877
Sunday Circulation: 132,489

The most significant move for us last year from a revenue standpoint - and hopefully from a readership standpoint - was the launch of our Weekend Plus program. We now deliver our Wednesday paper to weekend subscribers instead of our TMC. We're selling more inserts as a result, we get credit for ABC for a weekday paper and weekenders get a reminder that they really should be subscribing every day...

Stanly News & Press (Albemarle, NC)
Daily Circulation: 10,000
Sunday Circulation: 10,000

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

Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY)
Daily Circulation: 29,169
Sunday Circulation: 40,270

The readers have learned that the Web site IS the newspaper. When local or national news breaks, this newspaper's Web site usage spikes.

The State (Columbia, SC)
Daily Circulation: 115,959
Sunday Circulation: 151,816

Emphasis on women readers through content improvements and ongoing feedback through an email group (although efforts have waned in the past year).

The State-Journal Register (Springfield, IL)
Daily Circulation: 57,384
Sunday Circulation: 66,708

Probably the single-most successful thing we have done to drive readership is to significantly increase the number of letters to the editor that we publish. I think many newspapers underestimate the power of that part of the newspaper to “drive” readership. People like to have their views represented as published work in a newspaper. I have encouraged other newspaper editors to dramatically increase the number of letters they publish. As a general rule, I think most papers could do a lot better in this area. This next aspect certainly is not unique to The State Journal-Register, but we also began using photos with some letters to the editor during the past four years. It was not something we had done before. (Bear in mind that as recently as 1996-97 our editorial page usually had only one or two letters at most.) We add the photos when appropriate – that is, when there is a letter submitted in reference to either the photo itself or to a story that the photograph illustrates. It offers the added benefit of visual appeal to this section.

Another feature not unique to us but that has nonetheless proven popular is our Saturday practice of running old, often personal, photos submitted by readers. The photographs generally depict some bygone aspect of community life. We let the readers decide what is “old”.

Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
Daily Circulation: 55,886
Sunday Circulation: 63,255

Our market research, conducted in 2001, indicated a strong need for better home and garden coverage. The result is our weekly Real Living section, launched in February 2003. Year-to-date single copy sales are up 2.3% and Friday has become our second largest weekday for single copy sales. On the advertising side, we have generated $200,000 in incremental revenue.

While research was instrumental in identifying the need and in providing input on content, layout, promotion, etc., we also attribute the product's success to the fact that we appointed an inter-departmental committee to develop the content, advertising, distribution and marketing plans so that each department knew the importance of the product and that we had buy-in from our mid-level managers.

Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Daily Circulation: 255, 216
Sunday Circulation: 354,742

We feel following the Readership Institute's imperatives for growing readership has helped us to build a solid foundation for further readership growth. We believe we have made great innovative strides in in-paper promotion and in improving our culture.

Thomasville Times-Enterprise (GA)
Daily Circulation: 9,590
Sunday Circulation: 9,459

Change of Progress Edition to Generations - an all local people focus. The Readers love it. It runs on four Sundays in March.

Times Herald (Port Huron, MI)
Daily Circulation: 29,998
Sunday Circulation: 40,155

New Homes section went from a routine 12-page tabloid to a 56-page quarterfold with a glossy cover. Through design and content, we consciously tried to emphasize a target audience of younger home-owners.

Times Union (Albany, NY)
Daily Circulation: 99,242
Sunday Circulation: 145,357

We embraced the desire of readers for more "hyper-local" news to a greater extent than other newspapers. It is not unusual for papers to create weekly zoned sections filled with community news. In the key areas where we believed we could gain readership, we created separate special tab sections that are published four days a week.

The Titusville Herald (PA)
Daily Circulation: 4,065

In the developing stage of free coffee with newspaper promotion with local retailers that will offer retailer added value in his advertising program.

The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, PA)
Daily Circulation: 42,622
Sunday Circulation: 47,757

We started a What you Missed Box in our A1 rail that talks about what was in yesterday's newspaper from ads to stories, getting a good reaction from readers

Tri-City Herald (Pasco-Kennewick-Richland, WA)
Daily Circulation: 40,993
Sunday Circulation: 44,782

We invite reader critics and other community members to attend our daily news meetings to meet editors and get a look at how we do our jobs.

The Union (Grass Valley, CA)
Daily Circulation: 15,871

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.

The Union-Recorder (Milledgeville, GA)
Daily Circulation: 7,439

From an editorial standpoint, the most successful thing we did was revamp the way we covered news. The beats were divided by content (education, government, etc.) but because of the area we cover, it was difficult for one person to cover all the counties for particular area. Now the beats are divided up by county, which gives one person the responsibility to cover all meetings, etc. It also allows the people in that county to know who their contact person is, no matter what, and it allows the reporter to get to know everyone, which can be a plus when dealing with issues that cross lines (government vs. education, for instance).

The Wichita Eagle (KS)
Daily Circulation: 92,721
Sunday Circulation: 148, 624

Immerse your newsroom in readership research, work with it to identify a strategy for addressing areas for improvement and ask teams to set quantifiable goals that will move the organization in those directions. It is important that teams participate fully in the process, thereby taking ownership of the challenge. We have significantly improved the newspaper in this way.