The Readership Key: Are You Ready To Innovate ?

1. The Readership Key:Are You Ready To Innovate? NAA Readership Conference, April 19, 2004 John Lavine, Readership Institute j-lavine@northwestern.edu

2. Progress and Threat 25+ year olds 18-24 year olds Source: Readership Institute national RBS studies

3. Need Insights Beyond Impact • Success came with changes to: • News content • In-paper content promotion • Service • Scratched surface on: • Ad content • “Brand” • Culture

4. Wednesday and Beyond • Wednesday • Discuss RI’s findings from New Readers study (52 markets) • After Wednesday • Develop new research on how to enhance ads’ impact • Explore web readership based on user types and their use of newspapers’ content

5. Grow New Readers • Develop strategy to grow New Readers • African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and 18 - 24 year olds are your future • Hispanics are one in five children today • Advertisers go to medium that delivers them • Wednesday focus on them • Figured out how to quantify readers’ feelings • Strength of research results surprised us

6. Breakthrough: Profound Reader Experiences

7. Employee-Reader Connection • Organization • Engaged, reader-focused employees Consumer Engaged new readers, higher RBS

8. Key Recommendation • Your newspaper must build an organization that is • Strategically focused on readership • Expects continuous readership innovation • Rewards new readership growth

9. How We Reached That Recommendation • What your employees told us • Reflects your expectations • Papers know where they should go • Clear what constitutes readiness to innovate • In our research • Few are there • Disconnect with leaders and staff • Bottom Line • Your job is to get them there

10. New Readers: Organizational Studies • We analyzed input from 6,600 employees • All levels and every department • By race/ethnicity, gender, age • By position in newspaper • Then, looked at organization’s relationship to growing New Readers • Listen to your employees

11. What Your Employees Are Saying • “It’s not my responsibility” • “We’re not encouraged to take risks” • “We just carry out decisions somebody else makes • “There’s lot of talk about input, but in end our ideas are not really valued” • Hallmarks of newspaper that resists change

12. As leaders, they reflect your expectations You can change their focus and actions

13. What Your Employees Should Say • “I’m expected to know the business and take on challenging tasks” • “I’m expected to think differently and to innovate to win” • “I’m expected to take risks” • “I’m rewarded, even if I fail” • These are hallmarks of newspaper that embraces readership change

14. This kind of organization is positioned to win We need more newspapers like that

15. Ideal vs. Reality • Newspapers know where they need to go • Your “ideal” organization is strongly constructive • In all departments • Newspaper is almost twice as defensive and half as constructive as you want it to be

16. Not as constructive as you know you need to be (newspaper Ideal) • It’s an issue for all departments

17. Defensive behaviors much too strong in every department • (Here, less is better - your ideal)

18. Ideal vs. Reality for Leaders • Leaders across newspaper must lead / get a grip • They have rosier view of their organization than everyone else • That is dangerous for them and their newspaper

19. Disconnect between leaders and rest of newspaper • They think organization is more constructive ….

20. ….and less defensive than it really is

21. “Ready to Innovate” Index • RI research has new index that measures: • How well managers create and communicate reader-oriented mission • How focused whole newspaper is on readers’ needs • How newspaper responds to changing market • Higher “readiness” scores linked with higher RBS

22. “Ready To Innovate” Newspapers • Are more constructive, less defensive • Readership is higher in general and among target groups • Leaders share readership strategy with employees at every level • Involve employees in decisions that set strategy and affect them

23. “Ready” Newspapers, cont. • Do more training and development • Employees are more engaged • Often perform above requirements • Help newspaper innovate to reach goals • Have more women and minorities • More women and minorities in positions of authority

24. 50 40 30 20 10 0 Women Women Non-white Non-white managers managers NPs best positioned to innovate NPs least positioned to innovate Internal Diversity Matters

25. Warning Just having “right” people won’t bring success Must have readership strategy that informs everything your newspaper does

26. Changing the Culture • Readership Institute research identifies 20-plus practices that are sub-par • Begin your efforts with top three: • Employee involvement • Hiring • Coaching

27. Employee Involvement • Bring your staff into creating solutions • Not just execute solutions that management devises • Involve staff in real lives of New Readers • Dispel big, self-deluding myth: • Most newspaper employees still believe young adults will read more as they age

28. Hiring and Promotion • Look for people with diverse backgrounds and experiences • They can help you connect with under-served readers • Do not hire or promote to decision-making positions people not committed to making readership strategy happen

29. Coaching • Require staff to learn, first-hand, about young and diverse readers’ lives and experiences • Make it safe for people to take risks to grow readership and to fail • Recognize and reward risk-taking

30. Lavine’s formula • Adopt multi-year strategy that says” • “We’re going to significantly grow young adults and diverse readers” • Make your employees – and yourself – accountable for achieving that strategy • Set stretch benchmarks to get there • Don’t be afraid to lead

31. My Thanks to You and to… • Mary Nesbitt • RI Managing Director • RI Team Members Present • Todd McCauley • Limor Peer • Regina Glaspie • Mike Smith • Media Management Center Managing Director

32. Thank You Download this presentation at: www.readership.org