GANNETT CO. RAMPS UP TO REPLACE NEWS 2000

By: Lucia Moses Generation-X Is Generation-Next For Nation's Largest Chain



As 2001 approaches, Gannett Co. Inc. has decided that NEWS 2000, its
blueprint for news coverage at its daily papers, needs more than just a
name change. The nation's biggest newspaper chain said its new model
will take aim at growing readership online and in print, especially
among Gen-Xers. And in what will surely be welcome news to many of its
editors, Gannett also promises to simplify the process it uses to
evaluate its newspapers.



Gannett hasn't revealed specifics about the new program, which will be
called Readership Quality Reviews and will seek to make each paper the
dominant local information source in its market. But early signs of
major aspects of the 2001 program and updates of the company's other
news programs are beginning to emerge. In line with the new policy,
newspapers' online sites will be reviewed as the company puts a heavy
emphasis on developing its Web presence.



Mike Chihak, executive editor of the Tucson (Ariz.)
Citizen and head of a committee that will shape the new review
process, said the goal is to better reflect the population's
increasingly diverse makeup as Gannett hires employees and covers the
news. Other company groups are tackling retention and recruitment issues
in a tight job market.



'Gannett has been the industry leader in diversity for a long, long
time,' Chihak said. 'To stay that way, we need to look at things in a
new light. If we're not being reflective of our community, we're not
being journalistically accurate.'



Also on the readership front, a task force made up of Gen-Xers is
looking into increasing readership among 25- to 34-year-olds, while
Gannett plans to put out a technology news section for use at its papers
starting Sept. 5.



Two prototypes have emerged that will be tested in various markets: one
would incorporate changes in a daily's presentation; the other is a free
alternative weekly model, said Mary Stier, head of a Gannett task force
and publisher of the Rockford (Ill.) Register Star. 'This
generation grew up with free media,' Stier pointed out. 'They expect
their information to be free, and that is very different from the net
paid circulation model.'



Outlining the key aspects of the new model and other initiatives in the
June 9 edition of the corporate newsletter, News Watch, Senior
Vice President/News Phil Currie wrote, 'We must broaden our thinking
about readership and our definition of the means to grow it.'



While NEWS 2000 - which seeks to get papers to reflect the diversity of
their communities, uphold the First Amendment, and give readers what
they want - has been called well-intentioned and imitated by other
newspapers, the 9-year-old program also has been maligned as confusing,
ratings-oriented, formulaic, and cumbersome. Gannett's own research
showed that while most readers think the papers are getting better,
readership was flat and circulation was slipping, Currie reported in
News Watch in 1997.



'NEWS 2000 is basic good journalism, but it is far from simple,' Currie
wrote back then. 'And the readers come more slowly than we hoped.' The
program has gone through a number of revisions over the year; at the
time of Currie's analysis, Gannett reduced the frequency of evaluations,
emphasized a smaller number of core values, and scrapped a numerical
rating system.