In Experiment, 'Muncie Star Press' Replacing Biz News With 'Good News'

By: E&P Staff Will more readers like a paper that features "good news," and will advertisers be more likely to buy space in it? The Star Press in Muncie, Ind., is going to find out.

On Monday, the Star Press replaced its Business and Life sections separate section called Good News. The section will run for the next four Mondays.

"This is an experiment for the month of August only, to see whether readers and advertisers indeed like having good news bundled into a single section," General Manager Gene Williams wrote in a note to readers Sunday. "If it proves to be popular, we'll continue it. If not, that will tell us something. Regardless, we won't ever stop printing 'good news.'"

Williams said that when prototypes of the new section were shown to advertisers, "to a person they said they'd be more willing to advertise in The Star Press if there was just more good news in it."

The section may also go a long ways to answering the constant reader complaint that there's no good news in a newspaper, Williams added.

Replacing the Business and Life sections on Monday made sense, Williams said.

"Normally, there's very little business news worth publishing on a Monday -- and no stock tables to contend with -- and what news is important we'll include in our Nation/World report," he wrote. "And since many of the stories that will run in Good News are things we'd run in Life we figure that's a wash."

In another change, the paper introduced a column by Business Editor Keith Roysdon and Metro Editor Doug Walker that will focus on "a behind-the-scenes look at local politics, business and education." The column, called "The Walker/Roysdon Report," will run only in the print edition of the Star Press, Williams said.

"And yes, it will only run in the print edition of The Star Press," he wrote. "We believe the information and the things they'll be writing will be must-reads and that the reading should be done on paper, not on a computer screen. As we move forward, you'll probably see us do more exclusive features just for print and others just for online."