Hold the food section. Fatten the sports pages.
Executives attending the newspaper industry's technology convention this week said the paper of the future will follow the path taken by magazines and cable television: catering to readers' specialized tastes."Down the road, we will be delivering highly customized newspapers to our readers," said Frank A. Bennack Jr., president and chief executive officer of The Hearst Corp.
"Advertisers are telling us they like targeted audiences, not just mass audiences. That's why we have to develop ways to deliver both," said Bennack, who also is chairman of the Newspaper Association of America. The trade group was formerly called the American Newspaper Publishers Association.
Bennack said he envisions the day when subscribers will be able to tell newspapers, "These are the sections I want - I'm not interested in the food section, but I want an expanded business section."
While that degree of customization is still in the future, technology on exhibit at the convention shows that the process of tailoring newspapers for diverse markets is under way.
Huge computerized inserting systems put papers together with advertising supplements and local news sections targeted for individual communities. And systems already in use by many newspapers offer readers information beyond the printed page - via telephone audio services and fax machines.
"Zoning is more and more coming into the forefront of every newspaper publisher's challenge," said Barry C. Evans, vice president of Ferag Inc., whose high-speed multiple insert machine was on display.
"Advertisers don't want to spend the money to go to 10,000 people when you can target 6,000," Evans said.
By tailoring newspapers for the smaller segments of readers, the industry is moving along a path already taken by cable TV, which has cut into the dominance of the networks by offering dozens of "niche" channels, and the magazine industry, which has moved away from general-interest publications toward specialized ones.
The approach is essential as newspapers try to recover from what Bennack called two of the worst financial years in the industry's history. Newspapers are facing increased competition from cable TV, direct mail marketing and telephone companies seeking to enter the information business.
"If we want to thrive well into the next century, we really must reinvent the newspaper for the future," said Cathleen Black, NAA president.
"We've got to take an industry steeped in great traditions and with a very important mission and reshape it for a vastly different world," Black said. "Gone, or rapidly disappearing, are the days of just one press run for one mass market."
Black said much of the new technology works in tandem with the printed product. More than 600 papers now provide voice services, which both provide and collect information.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for example, generated 15 million calls last year on its voice information service, which provides such things as sports scores, stock information, weather and advertising.
The Chicago Tribune's new joint venture with America Online offers news, classified ads and calendar events. It also allows people to call in story ideas and make comments on issues.
Rich Rahko of Digital Equipment Corp., which was exhibiting its electronic information systems, said newspapers can enhance their target marketing by surveying callers to the phone services. Advertisers then can measure interest in their products.
"With mass media, you're not just giving a message but identifying an audience," Rahko said, "And advertisers are a lot more picky these days about who gets their message. They want more bang for the buck."