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March 15, 2004

Dear AP Sounding Board:

• 1. What age group are you trying to target when you reach out to younger readers: teens to early 20s? 20 to 35? Other age range?

• 2. Are younger women readers a priority?

• 3. What types of stories do you feel you need to reach these readers? Fashion, relationships, careers, families, homes, parenting, food, profiles? Other topics?

• 4. Do you use an interactive component in targeting these readers?

• 5. Are there any other thoughts on ways to attract younger readers?

AP asked a multi-part question about what APME Sounding Board members are doing to attract younger readers and women, and how they try to make their newspaper indispensable to these and other target groups.

1. What age group are you trying to target when you reach out to younger readers: teens to early 20s? 20 to 35? Other age range?

— Lenore Devore, managing editor, The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla.:

We are just beginning to look at how to REALLY target younger readers, starting with defining what age group we want to focus on. That's an obvious first step. At this point, without having targeted a specific age group, we are focusing on anywhere from 12-30.

— Mark Bowden, editor, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa:

Two concerted efforts for teen and 18- to 35-year olds.

— Ray Marcano, deputy managing editor, Dayton (Ohio) Daily News:

In the past year and half, we've created several new themed pages to try and reach younger audiences, as well as adding more coverage of areas we believe are of interest to younger readers. One new page is "Minor Details," targeted to teens in high school and junior high. The page, originally written by staff members, was successful from the start, but last year we added another element to get more teenagers involved. We solicited for interested teens and formed a panel of local teenagers to write for and advise the page.

— Associate Editor Jan Tuckwood and Features Editor Anne Smith, The Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach, Fla.:

I don't think about age ranges. I think about what's interesting to me and our editors, and we try to stay current and hip. Gal Friday feature, for example, attracts women 20 to 90, with information about beauty products and relationship advice.

— Steve Bell, managing editor, The Buffalo (N.Y.) News:

We're trying to reach all younger readers, all the time. It starts with our weekly section called NeXt that we've had for seven or eight years. It's now written almost entirely by high school students for high and middle school students. We run a book club out of it; have annual editorial cartooning and photography contests, etc. It includes comics aimed at younger kids. It has won several national awards. We try to hook them there. It's also closely coordinated with our Newspaper in Education program, which is vast. But for the last year or more, we've taken the Northwestern imperatives (Readership Institute, based at the Media Management Center at Northwestern University) and inculcated them into everything we do. Starting Sunday, our first predate sections come out off new presses and everything we've planned between now and the launch of our redesign in mid-May is calculated to take better advantage of photography, cleaner layouts, easier access to all parts of the paper and more useful organization.

2. Are younger women readers a priority?

— Devore:

At this point, all younger readers are a priority, not just women.

— Bowden:

Yes. A lot of effort in our daily Accent section to provide information for this demographic.

— Marcano:

Yes, We try to reach them through the minor details page mentioned above. In addition ... (a) new themed page is "Women's Life," geared primarily to women 40 and younger, though topics are often of interest to women of all ages.

— Tuckwood/Smith:

Definitely. Younger women readers are a priority, BUT our loyal 55-year-old woman is our top priority. Of course, 55-year-old women use Benefit and MAC cosmetics, as do 18-year-olds.

— Bell:

Younger readers, young women, people of color are all priorities. We've insisted for the last five years that Sports cover more girls and womens sports. We've worked hard to get women and people of color onto our section fronts and as sources into our stories. Four years ago we started a Saturday religion page that is the cover of Life & Arts. It includes an enterprise story about religion, the God Squad column and a "From the Pulpit," a sermon by a local clergy member.

3. What types of stories do you feel you need to reach these readers? Fashion, relationships, careers, families, homes, parenting, food, profiles? Other topics?

— Devore:

We think "firsts" are an important way to reach these readers, or non-readers. By this I mean stories that focus on buying your first house or your first piece of stock, going on your first job interview, etc.

— Bowden:

Beyond the usual suspects, we're looking at health care issues, especially those about children. This information should be of interest to younger women (moms). In addition, we're looking for lifestyle content of interest to the extremes — working moms and stay-at-home moms.

— Marcano:

We've boosted coverage of parenting issues and added a new parenting advice column written by a local child psychologist. We have also increased coverage of relationship topics and added a weekly shopping column.

— Tuckwood/Smith:

All of those stories are interesting to women, young and old, if they are done correctly. So are dating, starter apartment decor, consumer stories. But a 25-inch story about sandals can be boring. However a Product Panel test of three new styles of sandals is interesting. It's HOW a subject is covered, not just the subject.

— Bell:

Three years ago, we set up a team of five reporters with an editor who are all under 35, are diverse and write A1 enterprise stories that are different, edgy and outside the mainstream of politics, crime, education and the economy. Not that their stories can't emerge from those topics, but if they do, they need to be very non-traditional. The team most recently gave us A1 stories on anorexia, what women think of the antibiotics/cancer link, growth of crystal meth use and labs in rural upstate New York, the marriage of two people who met during protests to keep open a local hospital, the availability, use and effectiveness of the morning after pill, ... localized the finding that more women are graduating from professional schools, the educational debt burden of people in their 20s ... Two members of the team also broke off for a six-month look at the case of a college student who killed her baby right after birth. One thing we've learned is that you can't say "Let's do this story on demographic X." We need to thoroughly integrate appeals to younger and more diverse readers in all parts of the paper all the time. Can we assume that younger people don't read the hunting column, don't do the crossword puzzle or check the obits? No. Do we think that they're going to just happen to pick up the paper on the one day we make a splashy layout aimed at them? No. So we have to do it every day and grow those readers appreciation for what we do.

4. Do you use an interactive component in targeting these readers?

— Devore:

We have started an e-mail system with younger readers who are part of our Teen Panel to guide us on certain stories, give us tips, provide us with sources, etc.

— Bowden:

We're looking for ideas.

— Marcano:

The teen panel is obviously a very interactive element, but we also strive for stories that offer opportunities to solicit readers and create a forum about topics of high interest.

— Tuckwood/Smith:

Gal Friday, a section inside Friday Accent targeted to women of all ages, has many reader write-ins, and we use the Internet for those.

5. Are there any other thoughts on ways to attract younger readers?

— Devore:

If anyone ever develops the magic formula, they will be set for life!

— Bowden:

Our promotions/marketing department has developed a set of edgy advertisements that should connect with younger readers. We also continue to refine our entertainment coverage, and we're looking for more (young) reader involvement in reviews, etc. One very popular feature we've developed is a weekly 4-column graphic called "Need to Know," which takes a look at how to do things that young adults may not know how to do. It's developed, written and designed by our the 20-somethings on our staff. (Among the topics: Entertaining the in-laws; How to clean up your apartment/house/condo after a party; How to dance at a wedding without looking like a fool; A city-slicker's guide to camping; How to get rids of bats in your house; How to buy a house; Catching up: Books you should have read; First-timer's guide to preparing a Thanksgiving meal for friends/family ...)

— Tuckwood/Smith:

Hire younger editors. Hire women who have bought new clothes in the past few months. Stop thinking about what hip women want and think about getting a little hip. You can't study this stuff. You just have to be part of the world. I happen to think separate sections for youth are condescending. Stories sprinkled throughout the paper and young points of view in unexpected stories works better.

— Bell:

I'd say there is no one way to attract younger readers. APME, API, Poytner etc. have been doing seminars for years on different approaches. Ours here is to do it all, all the time. Singling out a particular group is not going to win you readers over the long haul. Yes, we've done some high visibility things: We have an African-American metro columnist and an African-American woman Life & Arts columnist. We started a "Cheap Eats" restaurant review in our weekly Friday entertainment section, Gusto, that offers a meal in the $5 range and compliments the more traditional restaurant reviews of higher-end places. We set up an electronic Rolodex on our in-house home page so people can find and use diverse sources. We've greatly expanded in all sections the use of pull out quotes, and most often try to make them balance a story's main picture(s). I hold monthly lunch meetings for photographers, reporters and editors to make sure they coordinate photo assignments better, get people into pictures who represent our communities and know that we need to use pictures better, larger and more attractively. I attend most of the departmental weekly critique sessions where we can kick around coverage.

With the arrival of our new presses, we've added new sections. These include "Weekend Life," a Sunday section geared toward recreational sports with a lot of "how to" information. We also changed the thrust of our "Travel" section — are our readers really going to the pyramids and Bora Bora? — to "Escapes & Getaways" with an emphasis on budget trips in the Northeast. That will include "One-tank trips," of regional interest. In May we debut a Monday tab section called "The Link," which is an offshoot of our traditional "Your Money" and "Click" technology section. The Link is all about consumers, how to spend wisely and save more, and technology. What works, what doesn't. We're using a Consumer Reports column and returning to the paper a feature we dropped 10 years ago called "Newspower." That's where one of our reporters track down and solve consumer complaints.

Have a question the board should pose to AP? Send it to AP National Desk Editor David Minthorn at dminthorn@ap.org, who is coordinating the Sounding Board.

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