Last Updated: October 01, 1996
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Newspaper skimmers are readers following a self-imposed information diet. They aren't interested in bulking up. They want enough to survive.
For them, survival means being knowledgeable about major events at a morning breakfast meeting, a work break or a night out. The ability to offer details in a conversation is important.
How to satisfy the appetite of time- and meaning-starved readers was Karen Jurgensen's question to those attending her segment of the roundtable sessions.
Jurgensen, editor of the editorial page at USA Today, offered as subject matter a look at how a dozen newspapers handled coverage of the plane crash in Croatia that killed U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown and 32 others.
The story offered papers a good challenge to satisfy skimmers. Not only was it a news story with many legs, but it also wasn't the only big story of the day. It shared time and space with the arrest of Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber suspect.
"How do we make this type of story compelling but also a quick read?" was the question Jurgensen posed. Before delving into a discussion of how the newspapers had handled it, she said the key to serving skimmers is to make each element of a story accessible.
From those discussions emerged a list of devices that appeal to the skimmer without turning off readers who want more:
- Provide a separate, complete index.
- Use deck heads.
- Select short quoteboxes.
- Label packages and pages precisely.
- Make graphics simple, informative and focused.
- Use chronologies, bio boxes.
- Use jump heads to catch attention.
- Emphasize elements that go beyond TV coverage.
McDermott is executive editor of the Springfield (Mass.) Union-News.
