More people are reading daily newspapers, but in 2003 they spent a minute less on the weekday paper and seven minutes less on the Sunday paper than they did the previous year. Readership continues to drop in the 18- to 24-year-old age group "despite fresh efforts by many papers to reach younger readers," Editor & Publisher reports. Highest readership was found among African Americans and those 65 and older. Findings are from a survey by the Readership Institute, a division of the Media Management Center at Northwestern University.
Rather than just deliver the same old reliable features and columns every week, editors of AAN papers look for ways to tweak their content, thus attracting new readers and re-engaging the faithful. But there's no sense rounding up a focus group to predict what new ingredients will work when freelancers, staff and the guy on the next barstool are all eager to give their advice. John Dicker interviews editors of four weeklies who messed with the mix to get happy results.
Following an industry trend, the Arizona alt-weekly went down to 25 inches wide, from 27. At the same time it rearranged sections and added more music coverage, editor Jimmy Boegle announces in a special anniversary issue. Although columnists will be allotted 150 to 200 fewer words, the theory that readers don't like longer articles is "full of crap," Boegle says, and word counts in most news and arts stories will remain the same. AAN associate member Katherine Topaz of Topaz Design did the redesign.
Some argue that the sexual revolution has yet to place men and women on a level playing field. The digital revolution, however, may be closing that gap. Harris Interactive's annual 360 Youth College Explorer Study, released today, found that men and women engage in online gaming, downloading music, and digital photography, as well as text messaging, at similar rates. Commissioned by Alloy's youth media and marketing division, 360 Youth, the study evaluated consumer technology and entertainment usage of college students ages 18-30. Although differences between the sexes have emerged from the research, it's clear that this demographic on the whole--of which 65 percent uses the broadband Internet daily--is far more "wired" than the general population, of which only 37 percent uses broadband.
Warnings of a "killer" flu strain that led Americans to be inoculated in record numbers last fall were overblown hype, Tara Servatius reports in Creative Loafing Charlotte. The experts who drove the story "either worked directly for the flu vaccine companies or served on the boards of special interest groups whose activities those companies funded," she writes. Not only was there no remarkable epidemic, but studies show the sought-after vaccine was only 14 percent effective in preventing the illness.
Cardinal Roger Mahony's three-point plan for handling some 500 claims of molestation by priests continues to exploit those seeking reparations, Jeffrey Anderson writes in L.A. Weekly. He describes how judges, trial lawyers and the media have deferred to the cardinal's desire for secrecy, and says Los Angeles "has become a beehive of intrigue at the expense of the collective psyche of already damaged victims of child rape."
There's no shortage of evidence that Mel Gibson has an anti-Semitic agenda in his film, "The Passion of the Christ," Stewart Sallo writes. The Boulder Weekly publisher says Jews historically have been most vulnerable to Christians' acts of "revenge" during the Holy Week before Easter, when passion plays were staged. Adolph Hitler praised one such performance in Germany as a convincing portrayal of "the menace of Jewry," Sallo writes. He raises concern about the potential of Gibson's film "to generate hatred and divisiveness."
TV stations are winning a growing share of the annual $16 billion U.S. daily newspaper classified ad market, according to a new report from Classified Intelligence, a consultancy based in Altamonte Springs, Fla.
Insider, a youth weekly that promises to bring readers "Rochester Remixed," debuted Friday. Editorial content includes weird news, breezily written mainstream news, snapshots of young people having fun, and two articles identified as "big stories." The free tabloid targets ages 25 to 34, according to the Gannett daily paper that publishes it. That age group is "wildly underserved," says Democrat and Chronicle Editor Mike Johansson. AAN member City Newspaper is published in Rochester.
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