Two Recent Projects Confirm What Newspapers Already Knew, But Haven’t Paid Enough Attention to: Catch Readers Young And They Stay With You For Life, and To Catch Them Young They Need To Find The Product MeaningfulBritish Newspapers Target The US As Fertile Ground To Gain Millions of New Online Readers

The newly released research from the Newspaper Association of America Foundation (NAAF) showed that 75% of the respondents aged 18 – 24 said they used to read newspaper stories when they were 13 – 17 and now they read their local newspaper at least once a week.

“Local newspapers recognize the need to nurture students’ appetite for news, and newspapers that provide content tailored to teens are making a powerful connection with the younger readers in their communities,” according to Margaret Vassilikos, NAAF senior vice president and treasurer.

The Foundation says there are some 220 newspapers in the US that have special sections for teens, written by teens under the supervision of an adult editor. Syndicates are also selling similar material to some 800 newspapers across the country.

Getting the young to read newspapers early in life is nothing new to the NAAF. Knowing full well from various studies over the years that the younger one becomes a regular reader of the newspaper the more likely that person will be a lifetime newspaper reader it has helped organize more than 950 Newspaper in Education (NIE) programs. Those programs call for local newspapers to provide schools, colleges, universities and non-traditional educational organizations with the local newspaper at discounted rates and at the same time the newspaper provides free support services to teachers, including in-service training, resource materials, and classroom presentations.

ftm background

The BBC Wants Back Its Teen Audience No Matter The Video and Audio Platforms Used. But Rupert Murdoch Wants Those Teens Surfing MySpace, And His People Howl At The BBC Spending Public Funds For Competitive Sites. Let The Battle Begin.
The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has clearly set out traditional media’s problem and how it intends to fix it. “The BBC should no longer think of itself as a broadcaster of TV and radio and some new media on the side. We should aim to deliver public service content to our audiences in whatever media and on whatever device makes sense for them, whether they are at home or on the move.”

Google Captures About 15% of All Online Advertising Which Continues to Grow as Search Engine Advertising Revenues Are Forecast to Overtake Internet Display Advertising by 2010
There can be no question that when it comes to online advertising that search revenue is on a roll, and the latest estimates from Jupiter Research says it will outpace even display advertising by 2010. Overall US Internet advertising is forecast to more than double the $9.3 billion at the end of 2004 to reach $18.9 billion by 2010.

How Newspapers Are Already Taking Advantage of the Digital Revolution. It’s Not Just the Internet But Mobile, Too.
Back in 1971 Intel developed its first memory chip – it stored all of 128 letters. Today a Samsung 8-gigabyte memory card can store one million newspaper pages – equivalent to about 90 years of a daily newspaper. And such changes in the semiconductor industry are only the tip of that iceberg that will help newspapers to continue reaching the masses.

Newspapers Should Take a Leaf From Gillette's Promotional Book When It Comes to Getting the Young to Buy the Product
Today’s quiz: What does a body spray product and a daily newspaper have in common? Answer: Both want to attract teenagers. Then how is it the body spray does and the newspaper doesn’t? Answer: Because the body spray knows how to turn the kids on, whereas a mainstream newspaper is expert at turning them off.

New York Times Tries Something New: If the Young Won’t Read Its Newspaper, Then Buy Into the One They Do
The old adage goes, “If you can’t beat them, join them,” and that is exactly what the New York Times Company has done in Boston in a novel experiment to see if it cannot yet still hook the youth market.

But newspapers have also learned its not good enough just to have the right information, it’s got to look attractive, too. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune recently went through a facelift with the main aim of attracting the younger reader and Cory Powell, assistant managing editor of design and readership, told a recent seminar of the American Press Institute what they did and why.

The newspaper figured that 40% of its readers were core – they would stay with the newspaper basically no matter what. It was the other 60% who needed to be continually persuaded to remain readers, and that meant identifying their interests and presenting the information in a manner they found attractive.

Foremost, the newspaper discovered that the average reader spends one-third of his/her time looking at visuals, so obviously that meant adding more pictures, It also meant discovering ways of telling a story pictorially as opposed to heavy use of text. On a page makeup basis there is more white space, there are smaller headlines, and there are also wider columns.

A new section called “Source” was introduced aimed at women and young audiences on such topics as style and health. Entertainment news was greatly increased and there is more humor throughout the paper.

When it relaunched last year the immediate reaction from long-time subscribers was negative – “What have you done to my newspaper?” – but at the end of the day there were no cancellations. Since October the rate of circulation decline has slowed and readership is up.

Back at the NAAF, Vice President Jim Abbott says that a key to keeping teens interested in a newspaper is that editors should try on practically every page to make that page relevant to a young person. If it’s a hard news page then have a story explaining why such events can affect the reader personally.

For instance, a conflict in the Middle East could affect gasoline supplies and that means YOU will pay more to fill your car. Teens may not understand the nuances of what is going on in Lebanon, but they do understand paying more at the gasoline pump and explaining why, and how long that may last is all-important.

Abbott said that attracting the young teen reader is a newspaper’s insurance policy. “You want to get these kids when they’re 13, 14, 15 years old when they are deciding where they want to go for information. Trying to get them back when you’ve lost them is a whole lot more expensive.” he explained.

And that is something that unfortunately many, many newspapers today can attest to.

Two Recent Projects Confirm What Newspapers Already Knew, But Haven’t Paid Enough Attention to: Catch Readers Young And They Stay With You For Life, and To Catch Them Young They Need To Find The Product Meaningful

Here’s a radical idea to capture the young print reader: provide content for teens, written by teens, that relates to teens. According to a new study if a newspaper does that not only will it attract young adults but it will keep them as they age.