Readership Institute Urges Newspapers to Launch Blogs
(Poynter.org) Steve Yelvington: The Readership Institute, which once seemed rather dismissive of websites, now says that newspapers should launch interactive weblogs "to provide a place for a segment of young readers to have something to talk about and to feel they're getting smarter about topics of interest to them." It's part of a call to action titled "Reaching New Readers: Revolution, not Evolution," which resulted from shocking data about twentysomethings compiled earlier this year. The research showed that "tweaking" newspapers to increase readership was working somewhat with older, existing readers, but the troubling loss of younger readers actually accelerated. "The simple truth is that newspapers can spend too much time making improvements around the edges that only benefit older, more loyal readers," the report says. "In the meantime you skirt the heart of the issue –- coming to grips with what makes lighter, younger readers really engage (or disengage) with your paper." → Original Item | Institute's Recommendations (PDF)