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Don't redesign
. . . redefine!

By Tony Sutton

For the past decade, the antidote for declining newspaper circulation has been simple - redesign. No problem: Appoint an art director, produce colorful graphics, change the typefaces and, z-o-o-o-o-m, away we go into the future! Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Desperate publishers are now seeking a new solution, a panacea to halt the decline and help their newspapers climb out of the doldrums.

The first question, is: Why didn’t the redesign route work? Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that many publishers believe the problem is something over which they have no control. So they - and their editors - abdicate responsibility, leaving the process of change to art departments, urging designers to come up with an attractive new look to entice readers and show the world that their newspapers are modern and up-to-date.

That decision ignores reality. Readers, generally, are not impressed by glitzy graphics and go-faster stripes. Nor do they care for masses of creative white space on section fronts.

Now, there is no doubt that good design makes newspapers look better. And it makes the stories more accessible. But it doesn’t fix problems of poor content, it doesn’t make leads crisper, and it doesn’t edit stories better. Sure, it usually leaves more space for headline information, but that additional information is often just plain boring.

Wrongly utilized, a redesign can be summed up in one phrase: Style without substance. And that’s what went wrong with a great many newspapers in the ’80s and early ’90s. That they became better looking is beyond dispute, but, most of the time, that’s all the redesigns achieved. And, paradoxically, that neat, clean appearance, especially when allied to bland content, had the opposite effect to the one intended. Newspapers didn’t become dynamic and interesting. They just became mind-numbingly boring. Readers responded by cancelling subscriptions and watching tabloid TV instead.

How do we get out of the rut?
The first part is easy: Change the name and impetus of the process from redesign to redefine. Instead of taking the lazy route and fixing just one aspect of the newspaper operation, it makes a great deal more sense to fix everything - advertising, circulation, distribution, editorial, marketing, management, printing and production - as part of the same process.

In attempting this, the exercise becomes more complex, but it doesn’t have to take a lot more time. In any case, the amount of time spent on a redesign has never been an indication of how successful it would be. But the quality of that time can make the difference between success and failure.

So, who should do the work? It’s crazy to entrust the job to the art director, no matter how talented he or she may be. It’s just as silly to leave every decision to the editor. And it’s misguided to believe focus groups can make all (or any) of the major decisions, although their input can be beneficial if you want to gauge the response to work in progress.

The key to success is to involve everyone in the process. The opinions of the advertising staff are just as important as those of senior editors when it comes to content. After all, advertising reps are readers, aren’t they? And the circulation staff spends much of their time listening to readers, so they should have an idea of what works and what doesn’t. And when it comes to redefining how other departments do their jobs, I’ve yet to meet an editor who didn’t have plenty of things to say about the advertising manager.

When it comes to leadership, there’s no debate. The publisher is in charge. He or she can delegate key tasks to senior staff, but making decisions is one of the prices they have to pay for that country club membership.

And what are those key decisions about? Redefining the newspaper means that close attention should be paid to each area of the newspaper, and that needs a great deal of co-ordination. And thought. Here are some of the main elements:

1. Redefine the role of the newspaper within the community
That means creating a new mission statement that is wide-ranging enough to encompass editorial and business philosophies. The plan should give editorial and advertising departments an outline of what they should be putting into the newspaper and an indication of how the information should be presented to be most effective. At the same time, the mission statement ought to create a hook that the circulation and marketing departments can use to sell the improved newspaper.

A key part of this beginning process should be of an intensely self-critical editorial audit that will attempt to answer, among others, the following questions: How good is the newspaper? Does it cater for all sections of the community? Is it achieving the goals set for it? How can it be improved to meet the needs of the people in the community it serves?

2. Redefine the content
This is probably the hardest thing for editorial staffers to do. They’re so close to the product that they often find it difficult to give an objective opinion on content. Get around the problem by seeking the opinion of a brutally honest outside editor, one whose work you admire, or a consultant who can approach the newspaper from the same philosophical direction as a much-coveted new reader.

Once you have decided that things need to be adjusted, the decisions become easier, if painful. What should you be covering? How will that coverage be approached? How long will stories be? Will you need more writers and editors? Will you need to retrain your staff? Audit every part of the content - throw away those parts that don’t work and replace them with new editorial features and columns that will make your customers want to read the newspaper.

3. Redefine the placement of the content
Reorganize the pages to reflect the values of the community. If local news gives you a competitive advantage over a much larger regional newspaper, don’t try to compete on national and international coverage; put strong local news on the front pages and throughout the A section.

Reassess the positioning of ads on each page and throughout the paper. It may be easy to sell them for the A section, but it is senseless if the volume of advertising in that section creates an impression that there the editorial content is an afterthought, something to fill the space left over. Distribute the ads throughout the newspaper in a way that enhances both the editorial and the advertising. If some advertisers complain, create differential rates so they pay more for A section positions.

One way to make other sections more desirable may be for editorial to stop objecting to carefully-sized ads being sold for section fronts and the editorial pages. Editors might like ad-free pages, but the readers won’t complain, especially if there’s more space for decent editorial inside each section of the newspaper.

4. Redefine the design to reflect the new priorities
Once you’ve got a clear idea of what you want, start the redesign. Make sure it reflects your priorities and don’t be afraid to change them if they don’t work. Produce prototype pages, analyze them, fix them and, when you’re happy, show them to focus groups of readers and advertisers. Listen to what the focus groups say. Be guided by them, but don’t let them make your decisions. That’s your job.

5. Redefine the business goals
Write a business plan that lets everyone know what is expected of them in the implementation of the redefined product. The circulation department needs to develop a strategy for selling content to the target audience. And advertising needs a strategy for selling that audience to advertisers.

Create sensible targets for both departments, with short-term and long-term goals. Develop a system that will allow you to measure the financial success of your product at regular intervals. If those goals are not being met after the work has been done, find out why and make whatever changes are necessary to bring them into line with your projections.

It’s also essential to develop an advertising and marketing plan for the relaunch. You will, of course, want to let your readers and advertisers know what is about to happen, but don’t forget to get the message out to former readers and former advertisers, and to non-readers and non-advertisers. If they don’t know about it, they won’t buy. Do whatever is necessary to get the newspaper into their hands. Advertise it on billboards, radio and TV. Give it away for a few days .

After all this effort, your redefined product will be judged on appearance, but only for a few days. After that, the readers will buy it - or not - because of the overall quality of its editorial, advertising, printing and distribution. Our job is to ensure that that quality starts at a high level and remains constant. Otherwise, the redefinition- like the redesign before it - may turn out to be a very expensive waste of time