ASNE - What we can learn from the tabloids

Sure, those supermarket tabs are full of tawdry stories, but they can teach us something

With this story I'm going to ask you to do something you wouldn't normally do. Don't worry, it's not illegal; in fact millions of your neighbors do it every week, so it can't be bad, can it? Go down to your local supermarket, buy a packet of chips and a soda. Then, as you stand in line at the check-out, buy a copy of the National Enquirer. And the Star. And another supermarket tabloid! Did I hear you say, "Aaarrrggghhh!" Good. Now take them back to your office and read them.

Study them closely. Read the headlines. Read the leads. Read the captions. Read everything. Yes, even the latest episode in the dreary, never-ending O.J. saga. Notice anything? Like how readable and professional these magazines are?

Here are five lessons we can learn from the supermarket tabloids:

Good writing and editing sell

Keep the writing to the minimum; keep the facts to the maximum. Writing doesn't have to drone on and on and on and on and on to be good.

Writers and editors don't always realize that when stories become repetitious or tedious or meaningless, readers will treat them with the respect they deserve - they'll turn to something more interesting, the National Enquirer, perhaps.

Don't try to impress readers with your education and literary ability, and never use words they can't understand. Making your customers feel dimwitted, uneducated or inferior is not the best way to communicate with them.

Get to the point quickly, give the details simply, wrap it up with a conclusion. Then stop. Good journalism has a beginning, a middle and an end. How long should a news story be? No longer than is necessary to relate the facts the reader needs to know. Features should be longer, but don't overstay your welcome.

Don't bore readers with subsidiary waffle and don't drive them to distraction with too much balance or qualification. Give them facts, facts, facts and keep commentary out of news stories. It belongs on the editorial page.

Supermarket tabs don't operate in monopoly markets and don't sell by subscription. They have strong competition and rise or fall on the quality of the product they sell every week. That quality is determined as much by the standard and style of writing as by the sheer number of scandals they manage to shoehorn into their pages.

Good headlines sell

The best headlines are those that are written freestyle, without artificial restrictions of typography or space. That was one of the lessons I learned when I worked on tabloid newspapers and general-interest magazines. And it applies just as much to the local broadsheet as it does to national million-sellers - especially when you're sweating over the wording of the main head of the day at the top of the front page. Great, eye-catching and throat-clutching headlines will never be written in two or three lines of 60 point with a character count of seven or eight units per line and a stipulation that modifiers or infinitives should be on the same line.

To be really attention-grabbing, the main front and feature page headlines should be written first, then the rest of the page assembled around it. Develop the prime focal point and everything else ought to slot neatly into place.

Don't try to tell the whole story in the headline. You can't. It's impossible. Zero in on the best information and shout it out. You may wish to qualify the headline information, but do that in a subsidiary headline, please!

Good pictures sell

Insist on action, demand exclusivity. Supermarket tabloids know that readers connect first of all with the image, then the words, so they make sure photographs are unique, powerful and express strong emotions.

There's no reason why we shouldn't pursue the same goals, by demanding images that will add an extra dimension to the page.

Develop an off-beat style, especially for the front-page picture that the reader sees first. There's nothing wrong with an eight-by-three or a six-by-four photograph - but every day? That might be a recipe for neat, easy-to-plan pages, but where's the action? Look at, and learn from, the tabs. They know how to scale and crop pictures to eliminate dead space.

Follow their example - project the best image of the day in the most meaningful way. That could mean an ultra deep double-column, a shallow six-column, or a huge cut-out. Ignore the pitiful bleats about preserving the purity of the original image from the hand-wringing theorists in the photo department; just produce strong images for the readers. They're the ones who buy the paper.

Almost any picture is better than the ones we saw moving across the TV screen yesterday. Encourage staff photographers, buy from local freelancers. Develop a unique style and create an anticipation that your newspaper will print memorable photographs every day.

There is no better way of connecting with your readers.

Humor sells

We live in a vicious, violent and intimidating world, but there's still a place for fun. Well, there ought to be, and not just on the comics page, either.

As journalistic "professionals," we may find it difficult to comprehend the reality that we will get more reader reaction to a three-inch story about a two-headed hound in Honolulu than a 50-inch account of the sleep-inducing monthly gathering of an obscure branch of local government. (The fact that that statement may offend some editors proves just how out of touch they are with their customers). That's why we play up one and forget the other.

I never could understand why we'd want to take the funniest stories from the wires and put them on the staff bulletin board, but not in the newspaper. But we do. Every day.

Well, don't. Put them in the newspaper where they belong. Just like the tabs do.

Contests and letters sell

If you want to connect with your readers, give them something to write to you about. Especially if they can win something. Everyone likes to be asked for an opinion, but newspapers generally don't consider their readers qualified enough. So, for example, they rarely ask the man or woman in the street how they feel about the justice system. Instead, they ask "experts" - psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, judges, professors. Yawn!

However, Public Eye, a short-lived Canadian tabloid did much better by inviting readers, through a box at the end of major stories, to Be The Judge, and phone in their opinions to an 800 number. Public Eye - like every other tab - also ran weekly contests in which readers could win serious cash prizes.

"Ah, yes," I can hear the rumblings from 101 newsrooms, "but supermarket tabs are not like us. Their job's entertainment, ours is Serious Journalism."

Be that as it may, the standards of journalism in the tabs are higher than in many, many newspapers. If you don't agree, take another look at the quality of headline writing, the effectiveness of the leads, the appeal of the pictures and the dynamism of the design in the tabs. Then ask yourself: Does my newspaper do as well?

Sutton, corporate design consultant for Thomson Newspapers, runs News Design Associates. This article first appeared in NDA's Nine On Ten.