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September 2000
Time to Change
The newspaper industry faces plenty of challenges. The decrease in readership amongst all
demographic groups has caused the industry to pay more attention to what's going on in
their market and in readers' minds. Terrific!
To adapt, newspapers must build upon their strengths, minimize (and, in some cases, OVERCOME) weakness and
embrace new - technology, promotion, alliances, and even cultures - to deal with these challenges.
The Challenges Newspapers are facing:
- Readers' lack of time. The #1 cited reason readership is declining.
- A subset, but of increasing recent interest, is the marked decline in single copy sales; notably Sunday.
- Competition. The increasing number of media outlets (read Internet), fragments time further.
- Younger readership. It's NOT lost, but requires attention and nurturing.
- The Internet: what to do and how?
The Strengths
Two of the main strengths newspapers can leverage:
- Newspapers are a superior source of local news: Newspapers generally surpass the competition.
Belden's average of several markets show that local news is the number one interest of readers
(65% are very interested in this topic) and 82% rate newspapers excellent or good.
- Newspapers are a source of useful information to readers: Newspapers are the leading source
of advertising information overall, especially for real estate, grocery shopping and new or used
vehicles. When people need to buy a product that requires more information, they go to newspapers,
a big plus with advertisers. Newspapers are also a great source for TV listings, places to go and
things to do, etc.
These are the most outstanding newspaper strengths; not the only ones, but of greatest interest
to readers.
"He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the great innovator.
" - Sir Francis Bacon
The Weaknesses
Based on a '98 NAA study, newspapers fall short of expectations or under-perform when it comes to:
- Credibility; yet, this is a challenge for all.
- Being engaging: newspapers need to engage readers better.
- Providing depth and seriousness of purpose.
- "Connecting" with the audience: TV and others are more likely to create an emotional connection.
- Being enjoyable. Not a real problem, but by making modest improvement, newspapers CAN become more
enjoyable, relaxing, and entertaining.
While not necessarily a weakness, this study also mentions newspapers fair poorly vis-à-vis other
media for topics other than local coverage. When seeking world/national news, business and finance,
features (such as health and fitness), and professional and local sports, readers are as likely to
rely on others and newspapers can and must improve.
Necessary steps
- Analyze your market: know your readers, who they are and what they want.
- Identify and work on your weaknesses and reinforce your strengths. Remember, people are interested
in local issues and how larger issues relate to their community.
- Identify your prime prospects and design the right marketing strategies to approach this group.
- Make newspapers more engaging, easier to use, more enjoyable, and more helpful.
- Strengthen the feature package; this will help reinforce readership among frequent readers and can attract infrequent readers.
- Promote and target relentlessly.
The last point bears additional comment: by most objective standards, we deliver what readers expect.
It's their perceptions that need to be altered. Promotion is the key. Properly done, it works!
Newspapers will continue facing different challenges. The Internet brings a host of new realities.
Newspapers should embrace this distribution vehicle/new medium as a way to reach new audiences.
But even success on the 'Net will be predicated on paying attention to performance. Newspapers
can make the necessary changes combining media, making newspapers more engaging, easier to use,
etc. But the most important thing is to know your readers (audience!) and to keep track of what
they are interested in, and how your newspaper is performing.
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