Creating Brand to Grow Readership

1. Creating Brand to Grow Readership ASNE Convention April 10, 2002 The Readership Institute: A joint venture of NAA, ASNE and The Media Management Center

2. Newspaper Readership Among the Adult U.S. Population Source: Newspaper Association of America Readership Trends

3. Agenda Today • Update • Readership activity in the last year • Report on brand project that is heavily based on content • New initiatives for light readers, 20-45 years old

4. Readership Institute (RI) studied 37,000 consumers Results in 4 cornerstones that apply toeverynewspaper… … ofevery size

5. 4 Cornerstones of Readership • Content • 9 types of content grow readership • A particular kind of local news • Content that is “easy to read” & navigable • Content that is promoted in the newspaper • Advertising content that grows readership • Service excellence • Constructive culture • Power of brand to grow readership

6. What Does Your Brand Say to Your Readers?

7. Brand in Newspapers • Newspapers can have a strong brand • New York Times & Wall Street Journal • Out of 100 papers, RI found 6 local dailies that had a modestly distinctive brand • Most leaders admit brand receives little attention • It’s difficult to make it actionable

8. Brand Remains a Puzzle • Brand grows readership • This is an enormous opportunity • RI explored it with two goals • Start with the special set of consumers • Others dealt with brand for all readers • We took on the more difficult task of how to use brand to grow readership for a consumer segment • Make the results actionable

9. What a Newspaper Brand Isn’t • It isn’t the paper’s logo or motto: • All the news that's fit to print • The nation’s newspaper • Beyond words • We know where you live • We deliver • It’s what you need to read • Every day since 1829

10. Measuring Readership • RI measured readers’ usage of their newspaper • Reader Behavior Score (RBS) is: • Time spent • Completeness • Frequency • Many newspapers are measuring RBS

11. RBS Reader Behavior Score Content: News & Adv. Brand Perception Service Excellence Readership Brand Model Relevant experience to me

12. RI Focus on Light Readers

13. Tests with Light Readers • Four RI partners • Herald-Sun • Durham, North Carolina • News & Observer • Raleigh, North Carolina • Journal Times • Racine, Wisconsin • Journal Sentinel • Milwaukee, Wisconsin

14. Types of Readers • Non-readers or readers of another newspaper (28%) • Heavy readers (21%) • Light readers (51%): • Selectives (6%) • Skimmers (11%) • Sunday/weekday sometimes (8%) • Sunday heavy (6%) • Light selectives (10%) • Weekday only (3%) • Sunday only light (7%)

15. % % % % % % % % % 21-25 Year Olds (% Reading Daily) Source: General Social Survey 2002

16. Who are Light Readers? • These readers are not us • RI studied how to increase RBS of light readers: • 20-45 year olds • Households of $35,000 and up • Educated at high school or above

17. You & I Can’t Share Light Readers’ Mindset • I feel drowned by the news • I already know what’s going on without the newspaper • The paper repeats yesterday’s radio or TV news • Too much news is depressing, uninteresting or a waste of time

18. Listen to What They Say "Well, you’re inundated with news on a constant basis. News updates on T.V.. You see it in the paper. You’re standing in the aisles at grocery stores and you read it. You're plagued by the news and there’s just a point I don’t want to know anymore."

19. Meeting Light Readers’ Needs • Think how different your paper would have to be if you felt that way about it

20. Find Relevant Experience for Light Readers

21. Process to Find Relevance • On the West Coast, light readers talked about the relevance of the newspaper for their lives • RI synthesized findings into 20+ possible brand ideas to change their newspaper experience • Tested the ideas in Midwest & East

22. Process to Find Relevance • RI developed four brand concepts from those tests • Created and tested prototypes of the concepts • Going forward • Turn the concepts into content that will work in the local market • Make marketing and promotion plans

23. Four Brand Concepts • Update • Quickly show the key stories that matter most to me • Talking Points • Debatables • Guide • Guide to ideas, news, places to go … • Enrichment • I grow. I’m in the know …

24. Four Concepts for Light Readers • These four concepts are just the beginning • From your younger, light readers you can find other big ideas • These might look like what you’ve seen or already do, but suspend judgment: • Four concepts have the potential to change your light reader’s experience with your newspaper

25. Update

30. Update Appeals to Broadest Range of Light Readers • Update tailors the newspaper to me • I already know the basics of the news • I use Update to track the news I care about • I use it to manage the news • I use Update to dig deeper into stories I care about and skip the ones I don’t

31. Update on the Front Page • If I have to open the newspaper to find Update, the experience is lost • If Update is inside: • It’s the same old newspaper • I have to waste time digging for things • Update is my connection to the paper • It’s not just an item or index

32. What Update Means • Update is not an index like in USA Today, the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal • The Update brand concept makes using the paper a new experience for me • Update lets me make it my newspaper

33. Talking Points

38. Talking Points’ Impact • Talking Points are stories that: • Arouse my curiosity • Make me see the larger question behind the story • Realize that it’s not one side or the other • Make me think or wonder • I want to think about them and discuss or debate them with friends

39. Guide

42. Response to Guide "I like this a lot. You know what? I would probably read this first. This generates more interest here. It generates interest for the articles. You may not even have a chance to research some of this stuff, but it shows you that the information is out there, you may think to yourself, well I'm not going to snow job. I have the opportunity to go and look for myself."

43. Guide Brand Concept • My newspaper summarizes what I need to know • It points me to other media if I want more • I already use those media; Guide helps in that endeavor • It adds to the stories in the newspaper • It sends me to other places where I can add to the story or experience it

44. Enrichment

47. Enrichment Brand Concept • My newspaper gives me the news and teaches me something at the same time • I get analysis and background that enriches my understanding • Everywhere I look my paper features a quick lesson that makes me smarter

48. Brand Concepts are Different • Brand concepts like these are fundamentally different because they: • Have a sharp focus on distinct audience • Are done prominently and consistently • Every day, front-to-back • Must be promoted

49. Brand Concepts are Different • They are a contract with light readers • Guarantee the light reader a new connection with the paper • Provides them an important, relevant experience in their lives

50. Content: News & Adv. Brand Perception Service Excellence Readership Brand Model RBS Relevant experience to me