Delivering what readers want
By William A. Peterson
Entertainment Editor
The Daily Reflector

LAS VEGAS -- Unlike death and taxes, declining newspaper readership numbers are not inevitable.

On-the-ball editors need to serve up a choice menu that includes plenty of well-written health, home, food, fashion and travel stories if they want to entice and satisfy readers.

That's the message from Steven S. Duke, project manager of the Readership Institute at Northwestern University's Media Management Center, and it's based on an intensive study of 100 newspaper markets across the county.

The study, a joint venture with the Newspaper Association of America and the American Society of Newspaper Editors, was launched in October 1999 to identify ways to attract readers. More than 37,000 newspaper readers and non-readers were surveyed, each answering a 12-page, 450-question survey.

After crunching the numbers, the researchers came up with this list of topics that have the best potential to build readership. Ranked in order of their potential, they are:

• Local, people-focused news (community announcements, stories about ordinary people, obituaries).
• Lifestyle news (health, fitness and medicine; home, garden and real estate; food; fashion and beauty; travel).
• Politics, local and national government and war.
• National disasters and accidents.
• Movies, television and weather.
• Business, economics and personal finance.
• Science, technology and environment.
• Police, crime and the judicial system.
• Sports.

What can be done with these topics to improve reader satisfaction? It's not just about quantity. Quality and format count, too. For instance, readers tend to want shorter, less complex coverage of movies, television and weather, and fewer natural disaster stories, according to the study.

Researchers looked closely at other qualities that play a role in satisfying readers. A cornerstone of the study is what Duke called the seven commandments for editors -- seven elements newspapers must pay attention to. They are:

Mix of stories. Think smorgasboard, and dazzle the audience with a variety of content choices.

High-potential topics. (See above.)

Quality. Fewer stories can be a good thing if what you offer is engaging, well written and useful.

Ordinary people. This is the No. 1 satisfaction source for readers, Duke said. Whether it's a personality profile or historic events seen through the eyes of our friends and neighbors, you can't go wrong writing about that local kid or hometown hero -- as long as you make readers connect with and care about the subject.

Writing styles. Remember: The best story in the world is no good if it's not told well. Don't be a slave to the inverted pyramid. Seduce readers with words that create resonant, visual images.

Making the paper easy to read. No, that doesn't mean dumbing down. Focus on having a user-friendly product that relaxes readers and is a breeze to navigate. Lots of go-and-do information and feature-style stories are especially popular.

Promoting the paper's content. Spread the word about upcoming stories. Use tantalizing teasers for that day's sections. Be sure to display your Web address.

"The editors need to listen to their readers," Duke said in an interview after his presentation. "They need to find ways to understand what readers in their markets want and find ways to deliver what readers are asking for."

"This study is so sound and so through and so national in scope that in many ways editors don't have to do any additional local research. They can take this and, with their existing local knowledge, apply it. But it is a matter of applying it and not just reading it and putting it on the shelf."

Gretchen Letterman, lifestyle editor for the St. Petersburg Times in St. Petersburg, Fla., welcomed the study's findings. "It was just really a reminder of what we already know and what we sometimes don't take the time to do ... you've got to keep writing those pieces and promoting what you've got and letting readers get excited in advance," she said.

Results of the study have been compiled into a report called "The Power to Grow Readership" can by found at http://readership.org/resources/reports.htm.

William Peterson, entertainment editor of The Daily Reflector in Greenville, N.C., was one of eight fellows who attended the AASFE convention and filed reports from it.