Reaching Potential Readers p. 11

By: George Garneau

Research sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors
and the Newspaper Association of America offers ideas aimed
at motivating people aged 22-44 to read daily newspapers sp.

MILLIONS OF EDUCATED people who have "scheduled newspapers out of their lives" would read more often if newspapers overhauled key aspects by rethinking what is newsworthy and abandoning their "preoccupation with breaking news," a consultant said.
Based on research involving focus groups and prototype newspapers, Kristin McGrath, president of MORI Research, Minneapolis, said newspapers frustrate potential readers, a group she defined as people ages 22 to 44 who are busy and thirst for knowledge. They have the demographic characteristics of typical newspaper readers but rarely open a newspaper.
Long a source of frustration for newspapers, potential readers, estimated at 13% of the adult population, are turned off by the format and content of newspapers, McGrath told a session at the Newspaper Association of America convention in San Francisco.
"The vast bulk of newspaper content is simply not relevant" to them, she said.
Daily newspaper circulation has fluctuated around 60 million since 1965, but because the population keeps growing, the share of adults who read on any given weekday has declined steadily from 78% in 1970 to under 62% last year.
"It's time to get rid of some sacred cows," she declared, saying that to reach potential readers and "maintain our franchise in the future, we need to 'make over' some of the basics of our craft."
She called on newspapers to:
? Redefine newsworthiness.
? Make over the front page.
? "Abandon our preoccupation with breaking news."
? Redefine the watchdog role.
? Redefine "the story."
McGrath cautioned that the prototypes offered no quick fixes to draw potential readers to newspapers. Even if newspapers adapted all the ideas of the prototypes, "Maybe the most we can hope for is to expand their readership from one day a week or less up to about three days. But don't sneer at that ? it would still be a substantial step forward."
The research was commissioned by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, with financial support from the Newspaper Association of America. Fourteen newspapers developed prototype front pages and themed sections and other innovations and conducted 40 focus groups of people who fit the definition of potential readers.
In general, McGrath said, focus groups praised prototype front pages that were loaded with excerpts, digests and contents because they served as guides to take readers through the paper, rather than the typical newspaper's presentation of the half dozen top stories of the day, as determined by the editors.
One prototype, a spadea designed to serve as a portable front page and table of contents, was a "hit" because it allowed readers to carry it around and use as and guide to their evening reading.
Potential readers hated jumps, which "symbolize everything that's reader-unfriendly about the form of newspapers," McGrath said. They objected to features that are not anchored in the same location and were unwilling to hunt through the paper.

Newsworthiness

McGrath said potential readers repeatedly called newspapers repetitious, either because they beat stories to death or because they create a perception of repetition by covering so much murder, disaster, scandal and plague that only the names and places seem to change.
Potential readers define news differently, based on relevance to them, McGrath said. A lot of what they call news, editors call features.
Potential readers liked prototypes dealing with parents and children, health and fitness, relationships, working, and international news packaged under the heading "global village." Sections about personal affairs succeeded if content was local ? not packaged ? syndicated material; useful, such as calendars, tips about when to plant flowers or where to go rafting; and helpful in organizing busy lives.

Breaking news

Potential readers often observed that newspapers rarely break news. TV, radio and office gossip usually do. Newspapers, in the tradition dating from before electronic media were invented, often recount yesterday's events, which readers saw on TV last night.
Instead of "headline news," potential readers want to build their knowledge base and to add perspective, McGrath said.
They want news as "a quick bite or a satisfying meal. That means eliminating 10- or 20-inch stories consisting of a new lead on top of rehash," she said. In focus groups, potential readers reacted positively to prototypes designed around the concept that items must be brief or deep.
"Another problem with 'breaking news' is that it's a backward-looking concept," McGrath said.
Potential readers appreciated the prototype Tomorrow page, designed in Daytona Beach, Fla., to guide readers about the next day's events and future developments. Newspapers "are on a much more level playing field when they look forward instead of backward," she said.

Watchdog role

Potential readers criticized what they saw as the current watchdog role because it implies an unequal relationship of newspapers talking down and because the role is too narrow, McGrath said.
Prototypes embodying a more equal relationship ? including community columnists, question-and-answer columns and easy access to the newspaper through fax and computer messaging ? were extremely popular in focus groups, she said.
Since newspapers are often regarded as reflecting journalists' biases, potential readers regarded the news as a community forum that neutralizes biases.
Potential readers want to expand the watchdog role to include "values," McGrath said. They complained that newspapers overemphasize institutions while downplaying "the social fabric itself" and concentrate debate on facts and opinions while shying away from morals and values. While they don't want newspapers to preach, McGrath said, they do want the community forum to include the debate over values.

The story

One potential reader said he can't retain information from long stories, but can when they are divided into logical categories.
Likewise, when prototypes presented long pieces in modular segments, or in combination with graphics, potential readers uniformly approved, McGrath said.
"That says to editors that we should not begin by assuming that there's going to be a story," she said. "We should begin with the information, and then decide how best to present it."
McGrath said that varying the routine of story after story will change the image of newspapers as slow and dull and create "a more contemporary personality."
At the same session, Greg Favre, executive editor of the Sacramento Bee and president of ASNE, said the prototypes contain ideas newspapers can use to appeal to all readers, not just potential readers, and he urged publishers to use them.
Favre said newspapers, now more than ever, are needed to hold together communities that are spinning apart, and editors need "to embrace change as those potential readers are doing in their own lives.
"Too often, we are inexpert and unsophisticated," he said. "Too often, we are afraid of drama. Too often, we look for formulas and try our best not to be different, even if being different works. Too often, we cheat our readers on a daily basis. Too often, we do not help our readers explore, enjoy and participate in an ever-changing world."
Asked after the convention if newspapers should consider such radical changes as giving up their core values of breaking news, Sandra Mims Rowe, executive editor of the Portland Oregonian, said:
"I don't think there is any single right answer for any group. But the point is correct. We have to look at content. We have to look for substantial change. And we have to be ready to question much of what we've done in the past. Potential readers won't be drawn in by new gimmicks."
Rowe, who heads ASNE's committee on the future of newspapers, said readers probably expect newspapers to change with the times, even as newspapers dread changing.
"There is more fear of change within the walls of the newsroom than there is in any of our communities," Rowe observed.
She said the question should be how to make papers better organized and easier to read while providing the context, depth and explanation for people who want them.
"There are a lot of rituals to newspaper journalism," McGrath said. "Maybe that's why people keep making movies about it. But rituals have a tendency to last beyond the point when they have any value or meaning.
"We need to choose between keeping our sacred cows or keeping a large, vital readership base."