Pa. Paper Gives it the Old College Try

By: Lucia Moses Updated at 4:40 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

It's move-in day for freshmen at Penn State -- and the merchants of College Avenue are ready for them, hawking everything from T-shirts to checking accounts. The Centre Daily Times is about to make its own pitch to college students in the form of "Blue," a new tab-sized section wrapped around the daily paper and designed for 18- to 34-year-olds.

At a time when newspaper executives across the country are sweating over their failure to interest young readers, "Blue" represents the CDT's best idea for reaching them. "I don't know if it's gonna work, but I feel like we've got to try," Publisher Henry B. Haitz III says from across a conference table in State College, Pa.

Worries about increasingly newspaper-wary young adults have spawned daily and weekly publications across the country, usually heavy on the entertainment news. What makes the "Blue" section (a reference to Penn State's blue and white colors, immortalized by Coach Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions football team) most unusual is that it's wrapped around the outside of the paper. A weekday product also is ambitious for a paper the CDT's size; with an average daily circulation of 25,607 and news staff of 35, it's Knight Ridder's second-smallest by circulation. But the need also is particularly critical here. Some 32% of the county population and 44% of the city is aged 18-24, versus 13% nationwide -- and only 21% of them read the CDT each weekday.

Haitz wasn't convinced other models were worth trying in State College. Plopping down copies of Chicago's RedEye and Pittsburgh Trib p.m., two daily standalones, on the table, he says, "We haven't heard of anyone who's having any outstanding success at getting at that age group." But "Blue" is the type of zoned publication that could work in college towns all over the country wherever the target audience lives in the same place, says Dan Cotter, COO of Urban & Associates Inc. consultancy of Sharon, Mass., who led the CDT through its launch.

Haitz, who easily rattles off market statistics and tends to speak in sports metaphors, knows something about what doesn't work. He'd been CFO at the paper in 1996 when it launched Buzz, a freestanding entertainment weekly for young readers that languished, and then folded after 18 months. Haitz told himself: "If we're not doing something to reach this demographic, we're not doing our job."

He got his chance six years later when he was named publisher. A study for the paper by Urban & Associates had identified an opportunity in the local college market, some 42,000 strong in a county of 110,000 adults. That spring in 2002, Haitz held a two-day retreat with his department heads. Task forces were assigned to come up with specific recommendations for a young reader product. The project lost traction, however, when the editor left the paper.

Haitz hired Bob Heisse, city editor at The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, as executive editor in January 2003. Heisse's task was to nail the news content for a fall semester launch. By April, it was decision time.

Arrival of the 'Blue' period

While some publishers experimenting with spinoffs take the view that they may never get young people reading the core daily, CDT executives felt a standalone seemed patronizing. They wanted to position the new edition of the paper as an addition. The CDT was comfortable with the wrap format, having used it for hotel copies and football game previews. It was important that it publish daily to reinforce regular reading habits, and be distributed where students are: on campus, and in student apartments and select single-copy outlets.

Going the wrap route also would allow the core paper to stay as is, recognizing, as Heisse says, the "large segment of the population that doesn't want any more Penn State news." Finally, putting the section out front instead of inserting it ensured the target audience wouldn't miss it, even if it risked turning off or confusing older or uninterested single-copy buyers. Given the large number of young people who are non-readers, though, the risk seemed worth it.

While many publishers might wonder if they can ever get young adults to become daily readers, Haitz was encouraged by Penn State's 6-year-old Newspaper Readership Program, which has showed students will read a paper if the location and price are right. For a small fee attached to their tuition bill, students can pick up newspapers on weekdays in racks or machines in their dorms or student center. At the start of the past spring semester, the average daily draw of the Centre Daily was 2,200, nearly tied with The New York Times; USA Today's was 4,000. Penn State research also told the CDT that students preferred getting their papers from boxes rather than delivered to their dorm rooms, that proximity mattered more than price in their decision to read a newspaper, and that 31% would be willing to buy a weekend paper for an extra fee.

Over the summer, a new staff of five twentysomethings refined the "Blue" design and content. In the spirit of USA Today, they made "Blue" colorful and brief, easily digested by the college student brain-fried after a day of classes. The 24-page section would be heavy on entertainment, sports, and "how-to" news. Early issues took on bra-strap fashion and a Penn State initiative that would let students share music files legally. Each issue contains wire briefs on regional news, a guide to nightly bar specials, the racy advice column "Ask the College Guy," and sports columns courtesy of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "College students are very busy, and they need stories that are short, to the point, and practical, and packed with information in an easy-to-read format," explains Kelly Palmer, a Rochester, N.Y., native hired from the Cortland (N.Y.) Standard as "Blue" editor.

"Blue" may be aimed mostly at students, but Haitz says repeatedly that it is not a student newspaper like Penn State's Daily Collegian. He's mindful of campus fears that "Blue" will drive the Collegian out of business by competing more directly for readers and advertisers. (The Collegian distributes about 21,000 copies free throughout campus). Even before "Blue" started, Collegian General Manager Gerry Hamilton had projected losses of $13,000 this academic year for the college paper. He worries "Blue" will lure, among others, bars and clubs from the Collegian that could run alcohol ads now banned by state law from college-funded papers.

Haitz responds that as a student-produced paper dominated by campus news, the Collegian has inherent strengths that "Blue" can't compete with. Besides, he says, the Collegian is school-subsidized. As he points out, "They're competing with my advertising."

Getting the name out, quickly

With just four days until the Sept. 2 launch, Haitz and his department heads huddle. Since students wouldn't return en masse until a few days before classes started that day, "Blue" has to make a big impact fast. The "Blue" blitz would include radio spots and rack cards with the taglines "Back in Blue and Read All Over" and "U Can't B 2 Blue." And it would host a night at a popular club, Crowbar.

Edward Stoddard, the CDT's market development manager, describes how he has hired young interns to give away goodies they assured would go over well with the college crowd. They nixed his idea to give out pens, pushing for water bottles, T-shirts, bottle openers, blinking buttons, temporary tattoos -- all stamped "Blue," of course. The executives both admire and puzzle over the tchotchkes on the conference table in the manner of anthropologists. Of special interest is the one called "Crazy Mouth," a plastic mouthpiece that, inserted in the mouth, glows, in this case, blue. "Apparently stuff that glows is very popular with this age group," Haitz says with authority.

Try as they might to understand their target audience, the CDT's executives realize their comprehension has its limits. "You don't have to be that far removed from a 20-year-old to know you don't speak the same language," says Haitz, who is 39. For their part, the "Blue" crew, all in their 20s, resort to "gentle nudging" when they think a superior's proposal, such as "News with 'tude," sounds dumb.

But those may be the small hurdles. Ad campaigns promise the section will have "edge" and "attitude," but by whose definition? Palmer contemplates a list of swear words she's compiled and wonders, "How far are we going to go with this?" Thumbing through the prototype, Haitz raises an eyebrow when he comes to the "College Guy" column with the topic of breast size. "I think I'd like to see that before it runs," he says. "This feels a little too edgy for me."

One can understand why he might be anxious. "Blue" is coming out at a time when local ad spending is still soft. Just across the way from the CDT's building sits the Corning Asahi picture-tube factory that laid off 1,000 workers earlier this year. Haitz already cut costs elsewhere to fund the research and marketing of "Blue." He's determined not to repeat the experience of the paper's Buzz standalone, which didn't attract enough advertisers, who apparently preferred the paper's existing entertainment section.

"This has to profit quickly," Haitz says over a salad lunch at The Dining Room, Penn State's hotel restaurant. "If we can't get advertising revenue moving, we'll be looking at cuts all over the building."

Proper execution is where a lot of newspapers stumble, says consultant Cotter. "With this [age] group, marketing's extremely important," he says. "They might have a great product, but if they don't promote it adequately, it's just not going to meet its own potential." Haitz has tenacity on his side, though; he fought to get the Audit Bureau of Circulations to count as paid circ papers distributed in college readership programs, defying those who thought him crazy.

The day ends with a party to kick off "Blue." While employees munch blue-frosted cookies behind the one-story building on East College, a stretch from campus, Haitz outlines his hopes: a section that will bring young people into the rest of the paper. He praises the "Blue" crew and the rest of the CDT staff. But a reality check was coming.

It rains the week "Blue" launches. The paper distributes 4,500 copies its first day, but by Friday, the number is down to 3,100, when a production problem stalls the press run. Of the few ads in the first issue, many are house ads. Haitz concedes that "Blue" needs more themed sections and better selling to win over advertisers. He also feels the cover refers are too subtle. "I don't think we've come out of the gate running as fast as we can," he says in a phone conversation. Overall, he gives it a C-plus, saying, "I'm a tough grader."

His goal is to raise that grade by the semester's end, getting to 5,000 distribution and moving the market-share needle. "Because it's so new and different," he had told the staff just before launch, "we don't know what's going to happen. But if we cannot make this work financially, we will try something else."
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Correction: Henry B. Haitz III became publisher after working at the paper six years, not four (as this story originally stated). Also, Penn State students no longer pay for the university's Newspaper Readership Program through their housing bill but through their tuition.
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