Traditional approaches like special kids' sections or youth-oriented stories sprinkled throughout the paper aren't working, so newspaper chains are testing alternative strategies to snag the elusive 18-to-34-year-old demographic, Editor & Publisher reports. For example, Gannett is launching free weeklies this fall in Boise, Idaho, and Lansing, Mich. and others have tried free-standing publications circulated to high school students. Meanwhile, some media conglomerates have decided that print is not enough, and have added youth-oriented content via radio, broadcast and the Web.

Continue ReadingDailies Struggle to Reach Young Readers

A couple of weeks ago Lee Enterprise's daily paper in Missoula changed the publication day of its weekend section and started to distribute it as a free, stand-alone paper. In a publisher's note, Missoula Independent's Matt Gibson says the move is "a transparent attempt by the Missoulian to impede the growth" of his paper, and calls it unethical, anti-competitive and "probably illegal". He promises that Lee is "going to find themselves in a fight so fierce and unrelenting, they’ll wish they’d picked on somebody their own size."

Continue ReadingAAN Publisher Says Daily Puts Bulls-Eye on His Back