Business News
How to Attract Youngsters to Newspapers (It Can Be Done)
Friday 15. October 2010 - Attracting younger readers to newspapers not only can be done, it needs to be done - a recent survey of chief editors world-wide cited declining interest among young readers as the greatest threat to newspapers in the future.
Though the survey – the Newsroom Barometer, conducted by McKinsey and Co. and the World Editors Forum – shows that editors are concerned about declining youth readership at their own newspapers, there are those who are succeeding with younger audiences.
The best of them will share their strategies at the 12 Readership Conference & Expo, to be held in San Francisco, California, on 16 and 17 November next.
The conference, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), in cooperation with the Newspaper Association of America and the WAN-IFRA Newsplex, is designed to help newspaper companies develop their audiences, both in print and on digital platforms.
That includes developing the younger demographic, and WAN-IFRA is bringing winners of its World Young Reader Prizes to a session on “How to Engage Young Readers and Audiences.”
The World Young Reader Prizes recognise newspaper companies that have devised the best projects and activities to promote newspaper reading and usage, on all platforms, among those under 25. Prizes will be awarded in San Francisco in eight categories: brand, editorial, making the news, newspapers in education, public service, connecting with mobile, research-based strategies, and enduring excellence.
Speakers in the session include:
Joanna Parczy?ska, Publisher, and Waldemar Pas, Editor in Chief, Metro, Poland, the 2010 World Young Reader Newspaper of the Year; Sunny Joseph, Chief Sub Editor, Editorial Division, and Director of the Yuva Project at the Malayala Manorama in India; and Reese Chiavari, Creative Director, Teenlink, Sun Sentinel, (Florida, USA).
Metro is the largest newspaper in Poland among readers 15 to 24, thanks to its “Total Youth Think” approach that provides practical information for its younger readers. The Malayala Manorama engages its younger readers through promoting education and debate over controversial issues of interest to the young. And Teenlink, the Sun-Sentinels youth edition, delivers sports, school and entertainment news and advertising to students ages 14 to 18 at their secondary schools.
Full conference details can be found at www.wan-ifra.org/readership-conference.
Other speakers include:
David L. Hunke, the President and Publisher of USA Today, who will present strategies for creating emotional bonds with audiences.
Torry Pedersen, CEO of Verdens Gang AS, the pioneering Schibsted company in Norway, who will discuss how they facilitate conversations among their readers.
Terry Horne, President & Publisher of the Orange County Register, a newspaper which has reorganised to expand its reach and quality to benefit its readership.
Jennifer Carroll, Vice President/Senior Editor of ContentOne, who will give an insight into ethnographic research being carried out among different audience groups.
Martin Jönsson, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Svenska Dagbladet in Sweden, a newspaper which has managed to turn itself around and win more readers and subscribers in the process.
Doug Bennett, President of the Interactive Division of US-based Freedom Communications, a company which has experimented with paid-content models across a number of titles.
Steve Cvengros, General Manager of Homepage at msn.com, will talk about how MSN targets audiences with content across their website in order to maximise traffic and expand its audience base.
Anette Novak, Editor-in-Chief of Norran in Sweden, who will talk about how the newspaper connects with local readers by involving them in editorial planning.
Gary Olszewski, Director, Consumer Sales, Baltimore Sun, USA, who will give insights into successful loyalty programmes and strategies for reducing “churn”.
Plus more speakers to be announced.