We've tried turkeys, T-shirts and pizzas; what does it take to interest people in our newspaper?
That's the question I'm thinking about as marketing director of the Deseret News, and it weighs heavily on my mind as we try to rub some of the fog off our crystal ball and look into the future of the newspaper business.By the way, the turkey, T-shirts and pizzas are premiums we're currently offering new subscribers to the Deseret News.
The turkey thing didn't work too well. We mailed 47,000 brochures to non-subscribers in targeted zip codes with the enticement of a $5 turkey gift certificate if they'd give us a try for eight weeks. We got a few new subscribers, but apparently summer isn't the time people are inclined to think turkey.
The T-shirt had possibilities, but we got the rug pulled out from under us before we really got started. We took our sports page from the day Ty Detmer was named winner of the Heisman Trophy and put it on a T-shirt. Surely people in Utah County would like a free T-shirt with Ty Detmer's picture on it in exchange for subscribing the Deseret News, we thought. It might have worked, but the BYU athletic department felt we might be bending, if not violating, an NCAA rule or two, so we had to pull the offer. Newspaper marketing is like that.
And now we're going to try pizza. Domino's will deliver a complimentary Deseret News with each pizza and a special offer of a free pizza with each new subscription. Let's hope it works, because we're holding the anchovies.
But it won't be gimmicks or special enticements that will inspire more people to read, enjoy and benefit from the Deseret News. Only the paper itself can do that.
We're in a changing business, and no one knows that better than those of us who work for an afternoon daily. The best and the brightest among us are looking for solutions.
This much we know: The world is changing too, and we face vast technological, intellectual and sociological evolution. Lifestyles are being transformed and newspapers are competing for readers' time and attention with broadcast, TV and radio, with cable TV, with audiotex, videotex and who knows what other texes.
Unfortunately, newspapers may have waited a little too long, thinking that since things have been good for so long they would continue in the same vein forever. After all, have you ever seen a human being who likes change?
Newspaper editors and writers for too long bypassed reader concerns and provided the product they wanted to offer instead of what the reader might actually desire.
"The most successful newspaper of the '90s and beyond will have to adapt to the interests and demands of a readership with far less time on its hands." said Cathie Black, newly installed president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association.
When you think about it, she said, newspapers and blue jeans have many things in common: They're so familiar they risk being overlooked. Levi Strauss and Co. knew this. The Gap knew it. Guess jeans knew it. So they reinvented the product. Yes, even blue jeans can be reinvented.
Black also said newspapers should be just as willing to customize and reinvent themselves. She, in fact, recommends redefining news and who makes it. To meet the expectations of the reader, she advised, newspapers should have shorter articles and more graphs and charts to make them appealing and informative.
Thank you Cathie Black. That's exactly what we've been doing at the Deseret News.
Consider excerpts from two recent letters we received:
Letter No. 1
I really enjoy your newspaper. I've always liked USA Today for its easy-to-read format and I see favorable similarities between your paper and theirs, as well as areas in which I think you excel. It's nice to have everything divided into logical sections. It's great to be able to scan a story at a glance and decide if it warrants reading. And to your credit, I do end up reading a large part of the articles, much more than I do with the Salt Lake Tribune or Daily Herald.
Letter No. 2
I must write you a note of congratulations on yesterday's paper. From front to back, it really represented what makes journalism count in our society!
Knowing this (the challenges we face in a changing environment) it was all the more inspiring and personally refreshing to enjoy the evening paper last night. Best wishes and keep up the good work!
Well, there's hope for us, and these readers didn't know anything about turkey, T-shirts or pizzas, at least until they read this story. Now they'll be calling me and wanting something for free. Maybe toothpaste. . . ?