The newspapers in these case studies haven’t always been readership success stories. At each newspaper, strong leaders took aggressive action to build readership. They rallied their colleagues, identified barriers to success and then attacked what they considered the critical barriers.

Barriers to readership success vary from newspaper to newspaper. Some, however, can be found almost everywhere. The most common barriers fall into these categories:

• Newspaper culture
• Customer focus
• Use of assets
• Community connections
• Local news

You should examine them all in putting together a readership success plan -- for successful newspapers have overcome barriers in every category. We recommend that you plan your success with a team representing every discipline in the organization. Readership is every newspaper employee’s business -- including the computer techs, the accountants and the folks on the loading dock.

Culture

It would pay to start with an honest look at your newspaper’s culture. This web of unwritten codes influences the behavior of every employee. If the culture pushes individuals away from successful behavior, the organization will fail -- no matter what the boss says.

Professional arrogance is a common cultural barrier: journalists thinking they know better than readers what news is important, circulators thinking that readers who ask for porch delivery just don’t understand.

Other common cultural barriers are poor teamwork, low productivity, resistance to change, fear of risk and narrow job definitions.

Newspaper leaders can’t attack cultural barriers by writing memos, making speeches or setting up financial incentives. Take professional arrogance, for instance:

Successful newspaper managers overcome professional arrogance by putting employees and customers in touch with each other. It’s easy for reporters to be cynical or insensitive around other reporters -- but cynicism and insensitivity break down when reporters look readers in the eye and hear their reactions to the newspaper. Focus groups in the conference room, call-in nights, open houses, publishing reporters’ phone numbers with bylined stories, inviting readers to news meetings -- each is a powerful way to break through professional arrogance and put reporters in touch with readers.

A proven technique for overcoming poor teamwork is the straightforward act of forming teams -- teams that cross departmental lines and that are empowered to improve something. People on such teams can succeed only if the team succeeds. They may need a little help. Teamwork training is widely available at a reasonable cost. But what most newspaper people need is practice -- practice in working with people from other departments, practice in breaking down walls.

Customer focus

A newspaper has three customers: the reader, the advertiser and the community.

(The community? You bet. The community gives the newspaper its reason for existence. Isn’t its very existence reason enough for a newspaper to treat the community as a valued customer?)

Any business that takes its customers for granted is inviting its customers to return the sentiment. The gloomy readership survey data newspaper people see year after year should be all the evidence we need to realize that our customers are handing back the attitudes we have handed them.

Before we can change the customer service climate at newspapers, we have to understand the way every employee thinks about customers and understand each employee’s customer service skills.

Newspapers with successful readership records are staffed by people who hear from readers, respect readers, genuinely enjoy finding ways to say "yes" when readers ask for something -- and know how to respond skillfully when readers are upset.

Like teamwork skills, customer service skills are easily learned. Good, affordable customer service training can be found anywhere. But a genuine customer service attitude can’t be taught by even the most gifted trainer. Successful newspaper leaders take great care to hire such people -- and to feed their instincts with a stream of information about readers.

Market research is an important source of reader information. Successful newspapers buy it and use it -- but they go further. To clearly focus everyone at your newspaper on serving your reader customers, you need a program of listening to readers every day and reporting what is heard to the whole organization. No training is necessary. Your colleagues already have the necessary skills.

It can be as easy as answering the telephone and taking notes, sorting data from circulation stop complaints, calling a few people for information, writing a brief report -- things newspaper people do every day. Here are a few reader-listening ideas from successful newspapers:

Reporter phone numbers -- List them with all bylined stories as The Connecticut Post does, and readers will call your reporters with tips, corrections and follow-up questions. Post Editor Rick Sayers says a few readers asked him for more information in the daily index. He polled the newsroom, found even more requests, and expanded the index. "If you’re listening to readers and you’re making changes for them, then you’re not really taking a risk," Sayers says. "A lot of the phone calls I get are from readers who say ‘I’m calling because I know you want to hear from us.’ "

Call-in nights -- Readers often complain that it’s hard to get a human being on the phone at the newspaper. Give them what they want now and then by advertising an evening when every executive will be at the office and doing nothing but taking readers’ phone calls.

Product stops -- Another Connecticut Post listening technique is to send every product-related cancellation to the newsroom, where an assistant managing editor calls the dissatisfied customer and simply listens. Other readership winners that call on product stops are The Sampson Independent in Clinton, N.C.; The Intelligencer/Record in Doylestown, Pa., and The Dothan (Ala.) Eagle.

Adopt a reader -- This is a good way to connect employees with new subscribers. Ask employees to "adopt" a few new subscribers every year. The employee gives each adopted new reader a thank-you call and an occasional survey or newsletter -- and, most important, a human contact at the newspaper. It takes 6-18 months to turn a new subscriber into a loyal reader. Many newspapers spend $200 or so in acquisition and churn costs for each new loyal reader. That leaves plenty of room to reward employees for nurturing new subscribers in less expensive ways.

Dr. Risk -- The Sacramento Bee invites community members to sit in on news meetings for a week. The program is called "Dr. Risk" because the community member makes the first suggestion for the page-one lineup after editors have listed their offerings.

Broderizing -- At the suggestion of columnist David Broder, The Press-Enterprise sent reporters out knocking on doors to ask readers what issues they cared about most. Some reporters found that difficult. When Editor and Publisher Marcia McQuern discovered that one of her reporters was hesitant, McQuern went along to help. After two or three interviews, the reporter continued on her own.

Focus groups -- Once an expensive rite of market researchers using video cameras and one-way glass, focus groups have become an easy, thought-provoking way for newspapers to see themselves through customers’ eyes. Just invite some readers (or nonreaders, depending on your need) to the conference room, serve refreshments, ask a few ice-breaker questions and let them start talking to each other about the newspaper. At The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., Editor Vicki Porter says, "We spend time with readers in the newsroom before we launch a new section or project. It’s market and reader driven." (A tip: Invite more people than you want and get telephone confirmations the day before. About half the confirmations will show up. A group of 8-12 is ideal.)

Advisory boards -- Formal community advisory boards are a good way to hear from the more active citizens in your community. Quarterly meetings are typical, with presentations by newspaper executives and reports by advisory members who have been monitoring some aspect of the newspaper’s operation.

Community editorial board members -- Some newspapers even invite readers into their inner sanctum: the editorial board meeting. Invitations to observe are most common, but service as a full voting member after a competitive selection process is another option you might consider.

Designated reader representative -- Big newspapers can afford ombudsmen to address readers’ concerns, but smaller ones often cannot. Some small and mid-sized dailies are spreading ombudsman duties around, designating a reader representative every week and publishing that person’s name, number and office hours on page one daily.

Feedback loop -- Whatever your listening technique, the lessons learned shouldn’t stop with the people involved. A reader’s comment to one employee has a value of one. When it is passed on to 99 others, it has a value of 100. Create an electronic bulletin board, a place in the company newsletter or some other means for every employee to hear what readers are saying.

One risk is that you might focus too much on gathering readers’ comments about the news report and overlook other important issues.

As Sun News Publisher Paula Ellis observes, newspaper people are highly skilled at executing a "product response" to market challenges of every sort. Sometimes, she says, we overlook the possibility that what’s needed is not new or improved product -- but new or improved "infrastructure."

By that, she means the way we select, listen to, sell to, serve and maintain relationships with customers.

At her newspaper, people from several departments created a new customer service department that handles circulation orders, delivery complaints and billing inquiries, sells classified ads, manages the switchboard and -- using access to the newsroom computer system -- answers requests for information.

In Myrtle Beach, a reader can call The Sun News to place an ad for a garage sale to raise money for a vacation, request no delivery during the trip and get the weather forecast for the destination. One call.

This "infrastructure" response to The Sun News’ market recognizes the readership-building potential of simply making it easier to do business with the newspaper.

The Sacramento Bee builds readership with earlier delivery and delivery to the porch. The Press-Enterprise responds with delivery times tailored to each community’s needs. The Naples Daily News responds with near-instant correction of delivery problems, The Connecticut Post responds with virtually any delivery frequency option a customer wants.

The Bee has learned the power of relationship-building through its experiment in which some new subscribers received the usual bill at renewal time and some received a friendly letter from the editor. Those who got the human touch renewed at twice the rate of those who simply got the bill. In Roanoke Rapids, N.C., the Daily Herald makes readers its partner in editing the newspaper by opening its door to community members bearing news.

And The Sun News, surrounded by almost 100 golf courses, has a new team analyzing this community segment -- not as a product opportunity, but as a community within the community to which the newspaper should carefully match all its infrastructure. The result could be a realignment as far-reaching as the customer service realignment.

As you listen to readers, look for cues about every part of your operation that touches them. This is what sets retention marketing -- knowing your loyal core and knowing how to add to it -- apart from the pressure sales, high churn and so-so service that have characterized so many newspapers in recent years.

Use of assets

Here’s where your newspaper’s number-crunchers can help with readership growth.

Whenever newspaper people talk about doing a better job, they talk about assets. Usually, they contend that better work requires more people, more newshole, more press capacity, more something. Sometimes they’re right. Sometimes newspapers suffer because their owners are unwilling to invest.

But the case study newspapers don’t have more to work with than other newspapers their size. Their equipment, staffing levels, operating budgets and profit expectations are in line with industry benchmarks. They differ from many newspapers, though, in how they use their assets.

Their newsrooms, for instance, typically have a high percentage of staff members devoted to creating local content. They supplement staff journalists with less expensive freelancers, interns and clerical support. And they fill a high percentage of their best newshole with local content.

Their publishers spend modestly on facilities and equipment that don’t directly support readership growth -- and invest the savings in readership.

Their organizations make maximum use of each budgeted FTE by holding down supervisory overhead and eliminating management layers.

Their organizations are open, communicate well and encourage creativity and risk-taking. This draws the best contribution from each person on the payroll.

And their managers make sure their newspapers don’t waste what is any organization’s most precious asset: time. Problems are solved quickly. Decisions don’t languish in committees. Employee productivity is high.

Do you know what percentage of your newsroom’s human power is devoted to creating local content? What percentage of your newshole goes to local? How much content per day your journalists are producing? If not, you may have potential assets you aren’t using.

Similar questions could be asked in every newspaper department. If money and human effort aren’t being spent on meeting customer needs, they aren’t being spent on your newspaper’s success. Hard as it is to spend every dime and every hour wisely, it’s not nearly as hard as what happens when a newspaper fails to serve its customers.

Community connections

The link between community ties and newspaper readership was documented long before these case studies, by Keith R. Stamm of the University of Washington. It’s a link that successful readership-builders understand and exploit.

If the case study newspapers had to choose between spending on advertising and spending on community sponsorships, we doubt they’d agonize over the decision. These newspapers do advertise -- but their best advertising is the way they step up to community service.

They raise funds for charities, organize marching bands for local parades and contribute to worthy causes. They sponsor festivals, concerts, swamp buggy races and book clubs. They put on fishing clinics for some kids and soccer clinics for others. If a segment of the community lacks its own festival, they organize one. They present forums, debates, spelling bees and speakers’ series.

Anything that builds community gets their contribution, their marketing support -- and the attention of their newsroom. In San Luis Obispo, Calif., Telegram-Tribune Circulation Director Jeff Brinley says his newspaper even holds an Oscars celebration. Readers are invited to watch the Academy Awards ceremonies at a prime downtown location, and the newspaper provides refreshments.

To people who live in such markets, it would be hard to imagine the community without the newspaper. And to the people who run the newspaper, it would be hard to imagine building readership at arms length from the community.

Community-building isn’t just the marketing department’s job. Every newspaper employee has a role to play -- even if that simply means showing up once a year for the newspaper’s walk-a-thon.

The newsroom’s role is critical. Political spin doctors and wedge artists are alienating American citizens -- even at the community level. And newspapers that cover this dysfunctional public life as if it were normal are turning readers off.

The newspapers we studied cover the news in their communities thoroughly and without shrinking from tough stories. But they make a point of asking their readers to help them focus on issues that truly affect people -- and not necessarily those that generate the most noise. They try hard to not report community problems without also reporting solutions or potential solutions. They try not to report complex issues without asking the questions their readers would ask. They treat their readers as mature, responsible citizens who don’t want to be mere spectators at a political shouting match -- but who want information that gives them the power to participate intelligently in guiding their community. They work consciously to help citizens -- not politicians, consultants or other "experts" -- shape the community agenda.

Some successful readership-builders call this public, or civic, journalism. Others simply call it good journalism. It takes many forms, from modest sidebars that tell readers who to call and how to participate, to exhaustive reports on critical issues facing the community.

Another way newspapers help build healthy communities is to serve as amplifiers for all community-builders. Charities, social service agencies, neighborhood groups and other grass roots organizations cannot succeed if the community doesn’t know what they are doing. Community calendars and profiles of unsung community heroes don’t carry much status in many newsrooms. In the newsrooms of successful readership-builders, however, they are considered essential.

Local news

Every day, wire services like the Associated Press and the New York Times News Service transmit lists of stories that they recommend for Page One. They do this to be helpful -- and to promote their product.

Readers in the communities we studied have a different Page One suggestion list. The items on it are similar every day: They touch readers with the lives of other local people. They help readers be effective citizens. They answer questions readers are asking. They recognize the 95% of the community that has committed no crime, is playing no political games and is trying every day to make some corner of the community a little better.

If the food chain of journalistic values started with readers and worked its way up, rather than starting in the largest newsrooms and working its way down, more local reports would look like the six we studied.

Micro news

A food chain that starts with readers will honor the power of micro local news at newspapers of any size. Micro local news -- calendars, listings, school events, minor town council agenda items, community sports and uncomplicated people stories -- is an important tool for even the biggest circulation-builders we studied.

Micro local news takes a lot of work -- and, in some communities, money. Large newspapers like The Sacramento Bee or The Press-Enterprise must set up bureaus and zoning operations or Neighbors products to give readers micro news. Smaller newspapers can do it with minimal zoning, but they have to commit staff time and daily newshole from less generous pools.

If your newspaper is not delivering at least some micro local news, you are overlooking something your readers would value highly and receive with real gratitude.

Local depth

Readers also expect newspapers of every size to dig deeply into the local issues that affect them most. Even the smallest of the case study newspapers, the Daily Herald in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., publishes 4-6 special reports a year on local issues.

All six of the case study newspapers have taken pains to be sure they are spending their in-depth reporting resources on subjects that truly matter to their readers.

When The Press-Enterprise sent reporters out to ask people in the community about coverage priorities, the response was to spend less time covering political arguments and more time on issues like student safety. Editor and Publisher Marcia McQuern says parents told their newspaper visitors that they were so worried about safety on the streets, they formed walking "wagon trains" to escort their children to school.

The newspaper responded -- not just with special projects, but with new daily story assignment and reporting habits.

Members of each case study newspaper’s editorial staff can recite what Naples Daily News Editor Phil Lewis calls the "franchise issues" that readers in that community expect their newspaper to take seriously. They do not waste time copying special project ideas or beat descriptions from other newspapers. They take their direction from their readers.

Solutions

The case study newspapers take seriously something else that readers seek in every American community: a solution-oriented approach to even the knottiest local problems. Yes, the sheriff may be a crook. Yes, gangs may be organizing in the elementary schools. Yes, the aquifer may be polluted. Readers count on their newspaper to tell them these stories -- but they long for reporting that also tells them who is working on the problem, how other communities have overcome a similar problem and what they can do to be part of the solution.

Political scientists who have studied citizen apathy say newspapers help create apathy when they forget to report on possible solutions and when their reports leave the impression that there’s nothing citizens can do.

There is no social or political problem that somebody in your community is not trying to solve. There is no public issue too complex for deliberation by citizens if reporters explain it in plain English and ask citizens to comment.

Here are two useful exercises for newsrooms that would like to take their local reports beyond an ordinary level:

A content audit -- Put a fearless, hard-nosed reporter in charge of this one. Give the auditor a month’s worth of newspapers, a pica pole and some tough questions to ask -- questions like:

What percent of the newshole (all sections) was devoted to local topics? (Remember to count photos and graphics if the auditor is not visually inclined.)

How many local people are quoted, written about or photographed? What percentage of them are "ordinary" citizens? Do they represent a cross-section of the community? If not, what parts of the community are under-represented?

How many stories were about community problems? What percentage of them included or were paired with stories that included information about solutions or ways citizens could get involved?

Ask the auditor to pay particular attention to ongoing coverage of major local issues. Did these stories quote just a few "expert" sources? Do they reflect strong opinions from either side but not from the middle? Do they ask questions that "ordinary" citizens would ask?

Give the auditor plenty of time to make a thoughtful analysis and plenty of time to present the findings. Break the findings into small pieces and schedule newsroom discussions about them. Moderate the discussions with a goal of producing action items by the end of each discussion.

Civic mapping -- Good reporters carry maps around in their heads. They can tell you where almost anything in the community is -- and how to get there. But can they tell you where the community is -- and how to find its sub-communities?

A civic map doesn’t look like a geographic map. It often looks more like a list. But however it looks, it maps out a community’s framework and indicates the size, key players, gathering places, organizations and priorities of sub-communities like occupational communities, the various faith communities, ethnic and racial communities, economic communities and lifestyle communities.

A good civic map would tell a newcomer in town who to ask about, where to see about, what is being done about almost anything that makes up a community.

If your newsroom is all over the civic map every day, you are reflecting your community the way successful readership-builders reflect theirs.

Putting together a readership plan

Each of the newspapers in these case studies followed a path to readership success. Your newspaper can travel that path, too, if you start with these five steps:

1. Begin with teamwork. Form a readership team with representatives from every department. Charge that team with developing your readership success plan -- and with serving as an example of outstanding teamwork for every employee of your newspaper.
2. Listen to readers. Enlist as many employees as you possibly can in this important daily routine and make sure everything they hear is reported to all. If they don’t know how, teach them to interact skillfully with customers.
3. Analyze your assets. Look for every dollar and every hour that isn’t being spent on meeting customers’ needs. Be ruthless. Reallocate those dollars and those hours.
4. Check your community profile. Is your newspaper’s name everywhere? Are you supporting your community’s worthwhile activities with your prestige, your newsprint and, where appropriate, your money?
5. Get the local news religion. Measure your breadth, analyze your depth. Consult with your readers. Set goals and build from where you are.

And, perhaps most important, once you’ve started walking, don’t stop. Readership success doesn’t come in a few months or even a few years. Most of the newspapers in these case studies have been chasing readership growth for decades. Their strategies are simple, but their perseverance is extraordinary.

No matter what you do at your newspaper, readership success is part of your job. And no matter what your title, part of the perseverance your newspaper needs to succeed can come from you.

(Conclusion author Mike Phillips was a member of the NAA case study task force. He is publisher of The Sun in Bremerton, Wash., and co-chair of the E.W. Scripps Readership Task Force. Contact him at mphillips@thesunlink.com)