Readership Institute: Getting Traction on Readership: Readership Wish List

Question: 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?

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

Continue to investigate what our readers want and what would make our non-subscribers pick up the newspaper on a regular basis.

Akron Legal News (OH)
Daily Circulation: 700

We are going to try to work some deals with area law schools. We're also going to market to young lawyers who have just passed the Bar. We haven't tried these ideas yet.

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

Many of the content changes have been slow to come because of talent level of folks in our newsroom. I'm working to improve that situation with each new hire to bring us to a sufficient level to make the changes in content and presentation that will make us a more vibrant newspaper.

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

Improve the quality of local advertising, and package advertising with related content for readers who are interested in those subjects.

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

We would like to add more pages, features and sections oriented toward younger and more mobile (transient) readers.

We would like to greatly increase our branding promotion through in-paper and other mediums.

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

We'd like to still do better with the suburbs and trying to find a way to integrate them better into our daily operation. How can we connect better at a very local level? Is much depth in the suburbs achievable? etc. Also, should we be looking for partnerships with cable, radio, etc., where we can work together to help each other raise awareness.

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

We manage our resources carefully and strive to improve daily. If one thing prevents us from doing more, it is possibly the sluggish economy; the same reality we all face. We are fortunate to be in a growing market, in a vibrant community with well educated, demanding readers. As the better economic times return, we will be poised to grow along with our market.

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

We suffer from a "risk averse" culture where change comes slow. We are slowed by our own institutional biases. I wish we could move faster, in and out of the newsroom.

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

We still don't reflect the entire ethnic demographic of our community. Literacy is a major problem in our Spanish-speaking population, while among African Americans historical mistrust of the traditional media seems to limit their participation in typical newspaper interaction.

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

Would like to be able to implement strategies and tactics that may not have immediate quantitative results but would have a high probability for readership gains in the long run.

We haven't been able to do this because the culture is more focused on short-term solutions and ROI.

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

We would like to increase the volume of local news, increase the bulk of our product and provide more marketing support. While we have made very good strides through focus and planning, a tight economy and reduced headcount has set news hole limits.

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

Make the paper visually more attractive and appealing. Time, available manpower and talent are problems but also internal resistance to change.

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

We would like to work more diligently on developing and designing more specialty pages. In order to do so, we need to gain advertising sponsors to help make increasing page counts feasible. With a harsh economy the past couple of years, it has been a little more difficult to do that.

Clinton Herald (IA)
Daily Circulation: 12,254

I'd like to run more features, but space is the problem due to budget constraints caused by newsprint prices. I'd like anchored feature pages, one theme for each day of the week. I need guidance on when to know whether to be at meetings and how to get comfortable switching out hard news for lighter features for a happier mix on the front. Getting all reporters to understand the feature writing aspect. Some excel while others are being coached to understand the format and why it is important.

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

Affect consistent news coverage in the county.

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

Expand our nation and world report.

Expand our professional sports coverage - baseball, basketball, football, etc. Other priorities have prevented us from adding the resources necessary to meet these desires.

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

Conduct more community forums, roundtables or other events that encourage input and discussion. We have not had the proper training to facilitate a professional discussion, but recently attended the APME credibility forum training and look forward to doing the roundtables beginning this fall.

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

We would like to do more scientific reader survey work

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

Features. Features. Features. We have such a busy operation with our paper and two sister papers being published in our office that sometimes projects have to be put on the back burner. We have been snowed under with special sections to the point that something had to be left undone. Of course, features were chosen by default. We also suffered a cut in one fulltime editorial slot. We need more people and heart stories.

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

Develop more community input, through letters, guest columns, etc.

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

Make our writing stronger. We are still not there, but we are making strides. We are conducting in-house training and now tracking the number of narrative-style and ordinary people reporting we do every week. It is an ongoing effort. The biggest roadblock is lack of enough time for training.

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

Larger promotion budget to promote our good work. The national and local economy in California is a challenge.

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

I think we are doing what we need to do with the task forces. I believe we need to create an alternative product for our college market and I think it will be a challenge to find the resources to do that well.

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

Expand local coverage; budget too tight to add more reporters.

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

Create a partnership with one of the regional TV stations that serves our market. (Lack of time to really sell the idea to one of the stations and really work through all the details involved.)

Conduct a new, more comprehensive survey of our readers

Daily Journal (Franklin, IN))
Daily Circulation: 17,228

Better in-paper promotion.

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

We would like to be able to do more series and personalizing of routine or regular events. Staff limitations have prevented us from doing that to the degree we would like.

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

We have not conducted a study to measure our RBS score. In 2003, we did not have the budget. We are also waiting for Tribune to develop a company-wide standard for measuring our RBS.

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

Spend more time with readers gauging their reactions to specific improvements and changes in their newspaper.

Daily Sentinel (Rome, NY)
Daily Circulation: 14,810

Plans in progress to make internet and print products more tightly coupled.

Want to integrate schools more closely.

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

I have encouraged the launch of a Friday living section with art, music, travel, food, home, health and fashion pages. This has met some resistance, as has proposed changes in art and entertainment section. I also wish to establish a four-page viewpoint section and a four-page world/national news section and a color Lifestyles section each Sunday.

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

Continue to build readership among the 18-34 segment. Develop sections to appeal to this market, but take lessons learned from Red Eye and other young demo publications.

Deming Headlight (NM)
Daily Circulation: 3,541

We would like to complete a redesign and ad skyboxes to the front page. Time constraints in terms of staffing have put this project back.

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

We need to expand our Local section. It's too skimpy and we have known that for a while. We have a task force working on that right now and expect to launch a bigger section in October.

We would like to grow readership more among young readers and among Hispanic readers. Both groups read us, but with less frequency than other readers. All newspapers struggle with these groups. Finding more experienced Hispanic reporters has been challenging.

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

While Sunday readership is a concern for all newspapers, we are particularly challenged due to our combined Sunday edition. A strong Sunday product is essential to draw new readers - to be converted later to 7-day delivery - and also to provide readers with the best and biggest features and stories. Up to this point, most of our major efforts - product enhancements, branding, etc. - have been devoted to the two daily products.

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

Establish readership metrics.
Cross promotion, because of space limitations, has been a real challenge.

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

I'd like to do a specific readership study for the demographic of our local market, which is highly competitive.

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

As mentioned earlier, we're just getting started on this, so our results may be a good ways off. But I intend to focus on customer service.

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

Convene a rather large focus group and then stick with that focus group through about three years of changes. See if changes are really noticed and to what extent. Not sure when to start and not sure of the commitment.

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

Accomplish truly over-the-top service with limited budget and a few employees.

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

Go to optional (paid) expanded obits.

Add more weekend entertainment information.

Add more newshole for everyday.

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

Would like to provide additional news and features to the market that financial constraints prohibit.

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

Better content promotion would definitely help. A lack of focus is the reason, but we now have a marketing director who will change that.

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

News: Push R.I. culture deeper into the newsroom, below managers into staff.

Grab newcomers faster, make them aware of changes in, advantages to our paper.

Circulation: Invoke ABC 25% rule to create combination subscription package with other publications. Had logistics and pricing issues.

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

The tough economic conditions have stifled the promotional spending needed to fully maximize our readership initiatives.

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

I'd like to offer a paid newspaper online. We're looking at software now but this would certainly increase our readership and return some revenues to the newspaper.

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

There are any number of likely useful brand-building approaches and content changes that haven't been implemented because of a lack of financial and personnel resources.

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

Devote more space and staff time to cover towns adjacent to our primary market.

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

Would like to provide more extensive indexing/summarizing. We do some but lack of manpower prevents doing more. Would also like to do more micronews (or chicken dinner as it as been called in the past), but again, manpower is the issue.

We should focus our energy on going after a younger audience, as it will comprise the main body of readers in ten to twenty years.

Improve and expand the community sections to offer relevant and local news coverage. Manpower has been the issue.

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

Determine the types of stories that readers want and the types to avoid, the types of stories that work on the front page to drive single copy sales and the types that belong inside the newspaper. We have tried to do local quantitative and qualitative (focus groups) research on this subject, through Millersville University, in the last 12 months, but nailing down answers to these questions has proven to be very difficult.

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

Promote more. Budget constraints.

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

Develop a product of more interest to the college-age crowd. We're still working on it; it's just that we haven't found the right formula yet.

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

Double, triple and quadruple our in-paper promotions.

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

We've done some advertising content promotion, but need to do a lot more of this on a regular basis. While we do a better job with editorial content promotion and it is done consistently, we are not yet providing the needed support. We know that classified advertising and advertising inserts are major entry points among young light readers, we are not yet promoting editorial content in these areas of the newspaper. Data shows that our largest opportunity element in RBS is frequency of reading. We need to tell the young light readers in the classifieds that there is an article of relevance to them in another section of that newspaper and that an upcoming day's edition will have a story that interests them.

To date, production limitations have kept us from implementing editorial content promotion in the classified section. Promoting content through inserts would be added expense and is not feasible unless we partner with an advertiser, perhaps by sharing a single sheet insert and using one side each.

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

Get the paper into the hands of every local person. Might not be practical.

Make newspaper readers out of kids. Does anyone have the secret?

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

Our efforts to cover diversity in the market have caused some backlash in the "old Montgomery" community, which has had a negative impact on readership. With a difficult economy we've been unable to move as quickly with our efforts to enhance content geared to the 25-34 reader. Examples: A K-12 education reporter, which has recently been hired, was planned for late 2002. A sports reporter covering local recreational sports has been moved from February 2003 to Fall, 2004. We have however, had great success in launching Sports Huddle which featured 44 boys and girls high school baseball teams in the spring and will expand in the fall to cover 44 football teams and more than 50 high school basketball teams. The launch of our June 2002 Health and Fitness section required the reallocation of one FTE to fill a reporter slot in news.

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

Our consistent lack of space and sectioning prevents our paper from being as good as it could be every day.

The Newport Daily News (RI)
Daily Circulation: 12,565

I would like to expand our N.I.E. program further and are under budget constraint.

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

I think we need to go deeply into understanding what this trust thing is all about, and what we can do to fix it. I think it takes more research and more conversations, and new solutions.

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

More in-depth readership survey or focus group study on content, perhaps section by section.

More consistent content promotion without the lineage budget constraint.

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

Do a more in-depth evaluation of what readers read, don't read and why. We did a simple version through the reader group, but it wasn't scientific or comprehensive. Cost keeps us from doing it. Readers will do it for free, however, the measurement is a substantial undertaking and would require some help, at least to the degree I want to do it.

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

Intensify local zoned news report, strengthen Sunday package with emphasis on appealing to upscale suburban women, intensify in-depth reporting of critical local bread-and-butter issues. LIMITS: Constrained by resources, but less so as our growth rate accelerates.

Intensify circulation sales and retention efforts to overcome telemarketing rule-change debacle. This will require quick and intense action to rethink and reconfigure our circulation efforts. LIMITS: We have no choice to respond decisively. The challenge is bigger than many realize; need sense of urgency throughout industry.

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

We have made improvements, but still struggle with infrastructure challenges such as press/color/newsprint issues that conflict with anchoring efforts, time and staff issues that have, up till now, hindered redesign efforts with navigation initiatives and tightening newshole in a soft economy.

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

We would like to expand our GO! section, improve hard-news coverage of our suburbs and improve our youth-oriented coverage. Our already limited staff has been further cut due to economic conditions, and we can only do so much with the staff on hand. Similarly, we lack the newshole to do more - we had to reassign newshole from other coverage to create the GO! section.

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

Immediately change our newsroom culture to reflect our new drive/mission. Changing culture from a metro mindset to a community paper is a challenge.

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

More newshole and resources to cover local news in greater depth. Economic conditions have prevented us from moving ahead quickly.

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

We would like to research the fast changing Hispanic market in our area but the current economic climate hasn't enabled us to do it.

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

We would like to produce and distribute a quality Hispanic edition of the Pharos-Tribune.
Incredibly enough, the language barrier is the obstacle we have to producing a product that meets the needs of the many English as second language community residents. We're working diligently to address this concern.

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

Formulate the relationship between readership and circulation.

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

Get more information on what interests our county readers while we make our coverage more geographic to delve into area communities with a more narrow focus. We also need to increase schools coverage.

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

The toughest nut to crack is how to get the attention of our growing commuter audience who have little time to read. They spend two to five hours a day commuting to work, mostly by car, and 39 percent of them read no daily publication at all, let alone ours.

Use frequently rotating billboards or sponsor signs at key commuter crossroads to promote columnists, articles of commuter interest and special sections, as well as local news. This will require a larger budget for billboards.

Expand Headlines of the Day radio to include a radio station with broader commuter reach like WFAN or WABC. This will require careful negotiation and a larger budget for broadcast.

Address Circulation Growth in Northwestern Dutchess and Ulster. Target current readers who are migrating to these areas for more affordable housing These current readers may now become commuters and we risk losing their readership so we must be proactive to retain them. The Editorial content changes and Online Commuter information will be valuable to these vested readers with new lifestyles. Ongoing evaluations of our penetration will be necessary to ensure we are following them with our communications.

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

We'd like to reach more 30-40 year old readers. The marketing manager believes that we need to make the paper more fun, some of the stories shorter, and some of the photos more wacky to attract that age group. Our design is very steady and we need to mix things up like the magazines do once in a while. Editorial is reorganizing somewhat and training a new design person, so we'll see what changes next year brings. We'd like more micro-news in the paper.

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

I'd like to see the entire newspaper staff get involved with this concept, but so far, staffs from other departments (advertising, circulation, press, mailroom) don't know much about it.

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

Outside promotion of the newspaper and services has been an area we have been unable to achieve at a high level primarily due to personnel issues and time constraints.

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

Still after the under 35's. We have to reach them outside of the newspaper, and for that, we need promotion dollars. Radio is niche-suited, but to make a real difference, we need good commercials on television shows catering to this demo. We also want to produce our own Total Market piece that is geared to this group. For this, again, tight budgets stand in the way.

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

Stage 2 of our internal Impact Communication Plan (hindrance: time constraints in relation to other major projects).

Expanded surveys, focus groups, etc. (hindrance: budget and time constraints).

A daily computerized reader feedback instrument.

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

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.

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

I continue to wonder what the impact our ever increasing Web site is having on our print readership.

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

I'd like to link the Internet and the paper even more closely in the minds of readers and the community. I don't think the community knows what we have online. It's expensive to promote the Internet and difficult during a down cycle.

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

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

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

Develop a sophisticated marketing plan that meshes just right with our circulation area, then pound it home until it sticks that you can't make it through a day without our paper. We made some noble stabs at marketing but just haven't been smart enough yet to figure out how to do it just right.

Add a quick read page - a 10-minute Saginaw News that's a true abstract of the best of every part of the paper to hit the "don't have enough time to read" excuse head on. Such a thing, as we envision it, is labor and space intensive and that's holding us up.

Salisbury Post (NC)
Daily Circulation: 23,869
Sunday Circulation: 25,223

Readership Survey - lack of funds.

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

Establish an ongoing qualitative research program. This will enable us to find out the why's behind our reader's buying and reading habits. This will assist us in having a better understanding of what dives people to read the paper.

Take fuller advantage of turning morning breaking news into comprehensive midday extra editions to capture readership and more fully command the breaking news stories. To do so we will need to find ways to reallocate our newsroom resources, press capacity and make available a single copy sales force. It is clear from the sale of many of our extras including the 17-day Olympic effort that netted 750,000 additional sales, the 9.11 extra and many others that a midday market exists in high-traffic areas of the city and county.

Re online, develop a breaking news culture among the newsroom staff in terms of putting news on the online site.

Creation of a distinct Street edition of the newspaper to appeal to the unique demographic that prefers to buy single copy. With the plummeting single copy numbers as starting point, drive an increase by the smart marriage of content, promotion and distribution.

Our marketing efforts to date have yet to focus on the newspaper as an essential tool for everyday life. Instead, the promotional work involves creating interest in a variety of sections designed to add value to the core, not the core itself. Without leveraging the unique importance a daily metropolitan newspaper contributes to a city, we risk having others define our role and value.

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

More detailed section readership research.

Core customer stop research.

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

A survey... we'd like to do a scientific survey, but budget cutbacks haven't allowed it...

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

More local reader research, starting with RBS, and more audited analysis of content.

Why not? Cost.

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

We have not been able to show demonstrable increase in readership among youth markets (18-35 year olds) and females, 25-40, with children. Why this hasn't been done is due to a series of factors, which we are attempting to address with actions designed to attract those readers, such as expanded entertainment coverage, “weekend warrior” project type coverage, and the like. In addition, we have not been as successful pushing the readership institute initiatives downward through the organization as we would like.

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

Better timely in and out paper promotion of locally generated information. Lack of time, people to coordinate and budget to accomplish have limited our efforts.

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

Seize those young readers!

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

We have not been able to revamp our consumer messaging sufficiently to reflect our brand strengths because of budget reductions. The down market has forced us to delay multi-media campaign development so we're moving very incrementally on the consumer advertising front.

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

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.

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

Make the ROI case for marketing expenses.

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

Room exists to bolster in-paper promotion of future news stories, upcoming news features and regular news sections.

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

We will increase the amount of upcoming and same-day content promotion in July. We did implement a plan to promote content last year, but have delayed creating a more complex plan as we improved other content areas over the past couple of years.

We will also look for ways to help improve our Sunday readership, which has slipped over the past 12 months.

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

Some of the key general issues we plan to focus on include:

Finding ways to balance the content needs of our “new” readers with those of our “old” readers.

Finding new and better ways to reach young readers.

Evolving the mix and type of content in the paper to better reflect our readers' needs and interests.

Further enhancing our navigation, design and in-paper content promotion to make reading the paper easier and well as increasing time spent with the paper and frequency of readership.

Taking the next steps in our multimedia partnerships in order to help grow young and diverse readers.

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

Grow circulation through the roof.

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

Working on a new daily zoned product to attract readers in specific zip codes but have not been able to pull all the pieces together for that yet.

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

Key managers and rank-and-file workers beyond the newsroom need to understand what the Readership Institute has found and must be encouraged to more fully embrace its conclusions. Building readership must become the over-riding goal of the whole organization. That requires repeated messages and training so that every action we take is aimed at building readership.

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

I would like to see more studies correlating NIE efforts with long-term readership. I would also like more tips on how to get light or non-readers into the paper.

Tri-City Herald (Pasco-Kennewick-Richland, WA)

Daily Circulation: 40,993
Sunday Circulation: 44,782

Content audit of our feature sections; implement plans to adopt more "go and do" information in feature stories; further design enhancements to promote same-day content. We haven't done these yet because we've simply not yet gotten to them.

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

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.

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

Redesign the newspaper - from a layout standpoint and from a content standpoint – by adding new features and making it more reader friendly. Time has been the major constraint in that.

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

More research on an ongoing basis, in the way of regular focus groups and surveys. It is difficult to devote staff and funds to these efforts.

More zoning, both geographic and demographic. Zoning is labor intensive and thus costly.