Engaging Young & Diverse Readers

From the Dec. 7, 2006 Herald News brown bag session recapping the recent ASNE Readership Seminar
Led by Nathan Hale, Jean Stevens & Suzanne Travers

A run-down of the brown bag highlights:

  • Age. We all must strive to include teenage and 20-something sources into our work. Why would young readers read our paper if they did not see themselves in it, or stories relating to their lives? It even helps to brainstorm with young readers in mind. Tips include: what would I (as a young person) want to read? What would my kids want to read? What’s on their minds? Where do they go? What stresses them out? Would I BUY this paper to read THIS story? Who can I interview for this story who is a teenager or 20 something?
  • Editing for audience. Instead of an editor saying, ‘What do we have for features today? News? Sports?’, the editor would ask, what do we have for 18-34 year olds today? For college students? (We also learned at the conference that in the 18-34 age bracket, race/class differences are transcended by age…in other words, a 22-year-old white girl from Clifton has more in common with a 24-year-old Hispanic male from Passaic, than the girl does with a white 40-year-old).
  • Experience. We must strive to create an experience in stories, from every step of the reporting process (I like to think of it as “The Starbucks factor.”) We should consider what stories will not just TELL readers the facts or TELL them a story, but allow them to FEEL a response to it, whether it’s humor, anger, surprise or “Wow, that made me smarter.” Readers don’t remember facts, they remember their responses, and they want to buy a product that gives them an experience (Why do we buy a $4 Starbucks latte? For the coffee house experience, the music, the lights, the mellow vibe, not just the coffee. Why should we buy a newspaper? For the in-the-know, funny, or what the? factor, not just the facts or the news). When brainstorming story ideas, while reporting, while writing and then during editing, experience must be key. Work with photo/design to maximize experience.
  • Headlines. We should work with headline writers to make sure the headlines hook the reader, through humor or witty brevity, and accurately reflect the story. Maybe reporters could suggest a clever (short!) headline for their stories as they file them.
  • Synergy, i.e. meeting with photographers and/or designers in the very beginning of the reporting process to help direct our reporting (for example, instead of writing a narrative about an unusual hair salon, instead, bring a photographer and take photos of 5 customers, write their stories in briefs, and then write a short story explaining the 5 W’s of why this salon is unusual). This forces us to focus our reporting on the most interesting and appealing aspects of the story, keeping in mind how it will presented visually.
  • We need help!! We talked about how important it is to get editors, marketing directors, and all the head honchos of the company on board with the redevelopment process, as reporters can only do so much.

Here’s a link to the seminar’s readings, which we found very insightful and useful: http://www.readership.org/seminar/seminar.asp