Mainstream Newspapers Can Thrive Within the New World of Free Tabloids and Free Internet News, But to Do So They Have to Seriously Change Their Ways.
Third of Three Parts

Philip M. Stone April 18, 2005

Circulation down! Advertising down! Free tabloids become circulation leaders! Young readers virtually disappeared! If mainstream publishers read their own newspaper’s stories it would seem all is doom and gloom for the mainstream newspaper industry. In fact, it doesn’t have to be that way, but to change the downward spirals mean that newspapers have very much to change their ways.

Some, seeing the success of the free tabloid, have gone tabloid themselves. In most cases that served to stem the circulation decline but it seldom claws back much of the circulation already lost. There are financial pitfalls, too, since advertisers object to paying the price rate for a tabloid full page as they do a broadsheet full page. With reductions of some 15-20% in the price of a full-page ad, it can often take 2 – 3 years to claw back lost advertising revenues the format switch caused.

There can be little doubt that most readers prefer the smaller format. But changing the page size is only part of the solution. What goes on the page, and how it is found, is all-important. The type of story – more women are attracted to tabloids -- page makeup becoming more magazine-like, and length of story all require new thinking and new skills.

One reason the free tabloid has proved so successful is that, besides its price, it is an easy read. Stories are short and there aren’t that many of them. You can be done well within 20 minutes (which just happens to be the name of a successful international chain of free tabloids).

A lot of research is concluding that one reason mainstream newspapers are in trouble is because their product has become so large every day that it has stepped over that  line in the sand on which the reader declares “I can’t handle that volume any more.” There are too many sections, so many long stories – that just the thought of starting to go through it on a daily basis is enough to put off subscribing. Put simply, the sight of so much newsprint is a real turn-off.

Now that is a real shocker since for years editors have believed that more is best – more stories on more subjects; increase the number of sections, become the one-stop reading shop. But to the reader the newspapers has reached a size that it looks like too time-consuming a task each day to even try, and better to go find that news elsewhere in a more user friendly environment such as the Internet or one of those thin daily free tabloids.

Focus groups, particularly at the Washington Post, proved that it was not the cost of a newspaper that was the major reason for not subscribing  – those in the focus group could have the newspaper at no charge – but rather it was the thought of having to go through so much material each day that was the killer.

A favorite analogy is the department store. First, the place is so huge you have no idea where to find what you want. You desperately search for the locater telling you which floors various departments are. Second, even when those locaters get you to the right floor, the place is so vast you still get lost. Turn right or left at the top of the escalator? And when it’s time to leave was the car parked in the West Parking lot or the East?  It just is not a pleasant experience. Much rather go to the smaller shop where one can find their way around easily.

And so it is with most mainstream newspapers. There are so many stories, so many sections, where does one go to find exactly what one is looking for? Frequent locaters are necessary. Not just on the front page, or Page 2, but within each section telling what stories are in that section and even more locaters telling where to find similar subjects elsewhere within the newspaper.

One beauty of the Internet is that it is so simple to navigate. So are tabloid newspapers because there is relatively little material. A big newspaper must be just as user friendly as its competition. And that means, for instance, dumping as many page jumps as possible. When this writer was a cub reporter on the San Jose News a new jump policy was instituted – if a Page 1 story jumped it had to go to the back page only.  And the readers really liked that.

Then there is the length of the story. This writer is news agency trained so a guilt pang crosses his brow when any story (including this one) starts to go over 350 words. That’s more than enough to tell almost anything as completely as most readers require. Many journalists will shudder at such heresy coming from a colleague but as Sgt. Joe Friday used to say in the original Dragnet police show, “Just the facts, Mam, just the facts!

Interestingly this point is beginning to catch on, but to varying degrees. The New York Times has just announced that any story over 1800 words has to have permission from the editor! 1800 words? Well, perhaps for them it is the same as 350 words for other newspapers, but the point is, again, that less is best. Keep the stories short. Readers do not want to spend a long time on every article.

And if the stories are shorter hopefully that means less newsprint and therefore a more attractive looking product to buy.

But perhaps the most serious problem facing the mainstream newspaper is losing its young readers to the free tabloids. Why do they go? The most frequent reason given from many surveys is that they no longer identify with the mainstream newspaper. The types of stories they are interested in are not to be found, or if they are they are written in a style with which they do not identify.

And it here that newspapers really have to change their ways. There’s an interesting experiment just started at the Miami Herald in conjunction with a French company in which kids pick out the major stories of the day that they are most interested in and they are published in a special section. Adults write those stories, but it is the kids who run the editorial meetings and decide the day’s story priorities. In France this has worked very well for a number of years for publications aimed at kids, and the question is whether such a creative idea can be exported to an adult-based US paper running a special section for kids..

Other newspapers have chosen to publish weekly or quarterly supplements written for and by teenagers. And the smart newspapers are converging those supplements with special new web sites aimed directly at the young reader. The content is obviously written by people who identify with the subject matter. No 50 something writing about rapper 50-Cent’s new album!

Newspapers need to fully utilize the power of the Internet to enhance their offerings to younger readers. Convergence between what is in the printed edition and expansion of those subjects of the Internet, particularly welcoming contributions from their readers, are mandatory to get the young involved with the print edition.

The New York Times Company took another approach in trying to stem the flow of young readers from its Boston Globe newspaper. The Times bought a 49% share in Metro Boston, and convergence between the Globe’s offerings and Metro Boston’s offerings are in full swing. Other newspapers have started their own free dailies to attract the young figuring changing the traditional product just wasn’t going to do it.

Part two of this series dealt with how newspapers should embrace the Internet, and that is especially so when it comes to competing with the free tabloids.

And since newspapers depend on advertisers to support them—and since advertisers are not giving newspapers that business for charity – they expect to get their money’s worth,, then perhaps newspapers should take a leaf out of that book and spend some of their own money to promote themselves outside of their own house ads.

Interestingly the Los Angeles Times, which is expected to report a circulation decline of more than 5% for the past six months, has announced a $10 million budget to boost its circulation, The money will be spent on direct marketing, radio, television, and online. We don’t know how good the campaign will be but the industry as a whole should be watching to see how it works.

The reason the free tabloids have become so successful is because they have gone back to the basics of what a newspaper once was. Very informative but still a quick read. It’s a recipe that has served the industry well for its 400 years of existence. It is one it should remember going forward.

(Third of three parts. Part one discussed how there should be convergence between a newspaper’s print edition and its  web site and part two studied whether newspapers should continue their free news on the Internet policy.)