Writing for Readers

One of the most pressing challenges facing newspapers today is reaching young readers. You need to address this challenge by presenting a dynamic web site for those participants who prefer that medium and by presenting a more dynamic newspaper that will hold the interest of those reading the print edition. The Readership Institute has provided valuable research that is especially helpful in understanding how readers in general and young readers in particular experience the newspaper. A Readership Institute study in cooperation with the Star Tribune in Minneapolis showed that the approach you take in writing and editing your newspaper makes a difference in how young adults react to the paper.

Important reader experiences. The Readership Institute identified these experiences as most important for growing readership among young adults:

• Gives me something to talk about
• Looks out for my interests
• Surprise and humor

Write and edit your stories with these experiences in mind. As you talk about story ideas, ask yourself questions that will guide you to deliver each of these experiences where appropriate.

Gives me something to talk about. Consider what would prompt a reader to tell a friend about this story. What is the best storytelling material in the story or the most surprising, annoying, amusing or interesting fact? How can you highlight that “talker” material in the writing and/or layering of the story? How can you highlight it in the online presentation? The Readership Institute encourages choosing, writing and presenting stories “in ways that make enough of an impact that would cause a reader to mention something about the story to a friend, colleague, family member, etc.”

Looks out for my interests. You have a unique readership that feels a strong sense of importance about their personal and collective interests and also feels detached from home. As you discuss story ideas, gather information, write stories and plan online packages, consider what your readers interests are and how you can reflect their interests in the stories. Again from the Readership Institute: “Content should be framed in ways that speak directly to the concerns and interests of this group, and that reflect their faces and perspectives. The implicit message is that the newspapers appreciates and cares about who the readers are and what’s important to them.”

Surprise and humor. All readers appreciate a laugh or an I-didn’t-know-that discovery. At all stages of a story, watch for the surprise or the humor. If something surprises or amuses you in the reporting, don’t just tell your editor or a colleague. Consider how to share that surprise or humor with readers. Sometimes the surprise or humor won’t fit into the main story that you are planning. In that case, consider one of two approaches:

• Change your plans for the main story. Too many stories are too process-oriented and boring. Can you cover that news in a different approach that recognizes the value of the surprise or humor that this story offers?
• Use a surprising or amusing tidbit in one of the layers as a “Did you know?” fact box or some other device that highlights it without disrupting a story where it might not fit neatly.

The Readership Institute advises: “While readers expect reliability and consistency, they also respond to energy, fun and unexpected treatment of routine matters.”

The Star Tribune took a day’s news offerings and revamped that day’s paper dramatically, focusing on presenting these experiences. The result showed dramatically higher favorable readings on these experiences. Techniques used in the “experience paper,” according to the Readership Institute:

• Change news choices to reflect topics of interest to your audience and experiences that resonate with them.
• Add and highlight story elements that play to these experiences.
• Write active headlines that speak directly to readers and play to experiences.
• Reframe and rewrite stories to explain “why this matters to you.”
• Write shorter, clearer narratives.
• Pull out facts that clog narrative flow and present them as separate layers.
• Explain complicated and/or routine stories in alternate story forms.

Resources to help write for readers

The Readership Institute: http://www.readership.org

The Readership Institute’s “Reinventing the Newspaper for Young Adults”: http://www.readership.org/experience/startrib_overview.pdf