GENERATION X CAN BE REACHED WITH EFFORT

Although Xers use newspapers less than Baby Boomers, they will come around if you focus on them and their interests

Xers don't trust newspapers, want to hear voices from their generation, are attracted to sports and entertainment and hate the title "Generation X."

These nuggets and more emerged from the "What's Important to Generation X" session. In the Gen X report:

44 percent said they are reading newspapers more frequently now than they were one year ago.
54 percent turned to newspapers because they felt newspapers provide news with depth and detail.
51 percent read a newspaper for the coverage of movies, concerts and plays.

Virginia Dodge Fielder, director of research for Knight-Ridder Newspapers, said that in addition, advertising ranks ahead of such classic newspaper fare as TV coverage and comics.

They're less drawn to op-ed and editorial pages. "Your job, Xers seem to be saying, is to give us the news and information in a straightforward manner. We'll decide what we think about it."

Adam Platt, editor of Casino Executive magazine, spent 1995 studying the group for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He gave an example of why newspapers are less compelling than television.

At a hotel, Platt opened his door and got the paper. The front had a Menendez trial story. "As I got ready to take a look at it, I turned on the TV and 'The Today Show' was on, and they were also dealing with the identical story." He faced a quandary. "Fundamentally, I made a very reflexive, emotional decision to put down the newspaper and watch 'The Today Show.' And in that decision, which was not so much a conscious, rational decision, but a reflexive one, I think are a lot of the perils that newspapers face in trying to address this generation."

Fielder said that GenXers are different from Boomers the same age. Data back to 1971 is available, allowing direct comparisons. "They read newspapers at a lower level than Boomers did at that age."

Sean Keller of Yankelovich Partners, which did the study, added, "What you do see are fundamental differences in the attitudes and the values."

So how do you get these readers? Platt had ideas.

Create a new product that doesn't "carry the baggage and the newspaper's lack of hipness and image" and can later integrate readers into the main product.
Look at sports sections. They're popular because they're informationally unique. Hallmarks: lots of local information, gripping photos, etc.

Branson is publications director for ASNE.