ASNE - Eight ways to lure readers

Published Thursday, April 5, 2001

Based on its study, the Readership Institute developed these solutions to help newspapers better satisfy their readers:

1. Great customer service: Newspapers should strive to surpass customers’ current experience in the following areas: Condition and completeness of the delivered newspaper, quality of the paper, ink and type size; when and how the newspaper is delivered; accuracy of the bill; cost of home delivery; and customer service.

2. Better content: A “better job” with several topics would result in more readers. For example, shorter, less complex stories on movies, television and the weather, more intensely local and people-focused news stories, fewer stories and color photos of natural disasters and accidents and more feature and point-of-view approaches to sports.

3. Local, local: There remains a large, unrealized potential for local news of a particular kind. Newspapers that have more content written in a feature-style approach are perceived as being more local than those in which a straight-news approach dominates.

4. Easy reading: Readers respond well to content (news and advertising) that is easy to find, engage in and move through. They want presentation that helps them find what they know they’re looking for - and what they might not know is in the newspaper, but relates to their interests. “Do it better and I’ll read more of you,” they say.

5. Focused ads: Newspapers that can make readers more satisfied with advertising content will reap great benefits, so advertising executives should care every bit as much about the content of advertising as editors do about news content.

6. Boost branding: Satisfied readers view their newspaper as intelligent, successful, experienced, honest, trustworthy, helpful; a link to their need to be informed and “in the know”; middle-class; neighborly; a leader in the community; it makes them think; reflects their personal beliefs and values; cares about people like them; is fun, creative, energetic and has personality.

7. Promote yourself: Newspapers that run more promotions of upcoming and same-day content have higher reader satisfaction levels. Newspapers need to help infrequent and selective readers find more of what’s in it for them. In-paper promotion also is more effective with at-risk readers, especially people younger than 35 and women.

8. Newsroom culture: Newspapers that have adaptive, constructive cultures have higher reader satisfaction. More than 80 percent of the Impact newspapers have defensive cultures, which resist change. Constructive cultures expect achievement at the individual and group levels. Collaboration and coordination across departments are not optional – it’s how they operate.

Eight ways to lure readers