Author: Dan Norman
Published: August 30, 1999
Last Updated: September 23, 1999
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TV books

Take care when changing anything in your television book; consider what others have done, listen to readers’ thoughts and make sure you and your team are ready for the calls

If you are thinking of redesigning your TV book, here are 10 tips that may help you:

• Assign somebody to gather TV books from around the country. This is time consuming, but will prove very valuable. How to do it: Do a form letter and send it out to all papers that have a TV book (this information is available from the E&P Yearbook). In the form letter, say that your are thinking of redoing your book and you would like to see their TV book. Don’t just get TV books from the big papers. Get them from papers of all sizes; good ideas come from papers of all sizes.
• Let readers know. Tell your readers in advance that you will be making some changes in the TV book. A good way to do this is to do a survey of readers, finding out their viewing habits. And, at the same time, tell readers they will be using the information they send you to help you make decisions about the redesigned TV book.
• Ask for reader input. Invite your readers in to talk about your TV book — what do they like about it, what would they like to see different, etc. Again, this shows readers that you are seeking their thoughts as you go through the process of introducing a new TV book.
• Ask for feedback during the design. Invite the readers back to show them your new redesign. A word of caution: If you do this, show them the new book in a lighting situation similar to that of home viewing. (If you show them the new book in a room that is very well-lighted, you won’t get a true picture of the book’s usability.)
• Do something new. Space is at a premium, for sure, but try to include one or two new fun features in your redesign, such as a celebrity Q & A, TV sports trivia column or TV jumble.
• Make it a team effort. Involve all facets of your paper — circulation, advertising, promotions, operations, etc. in the process of redesigning the TV book. It helps to get everyone on board, so there are no surprises. Also, good ideas come from all parts of the paper — not just editorial.
• Consider the audience when using screens. If you are going to introduce color grids, you might want to consider going with light pastels instead of darker colors. The darker colors may look better on a page, but reading type behind them is very difficult. The lighter the better. And, that being said, be prepared for many phone calls, mostly from elderly readers, who find it difficult to read type behind color backgrounds.
• Don’t forget your customer service department. Before the launch of the new book, do training sessions with them so they can be better equipped to answer readers questions.
• And, the day of the launch, don’t disappear. Show up at the customer service department and help those folks answer calls from readers. This is a great morale booster.
• The harsh reality. Know that you will hardly ever receive positive calls from readers. You will receive mostly negative calls. Hang in there. But, at the same time, be flexible. If it’s not working, be prepared to make adjustments.