Looks Like the Quest for Young Readers is Ending
An article in Southern Newspaper Publishers Association weekly eBulletin describes how a publisher in Chattanooga decided that attempting to appeal to young readers would alienate the newspapers appeal to its core audience.
It’s not tit-for-tat when publishers / editors make the decision to try to attract young readers. Boomer readers like a lot of the same things X’ers do. So to think that adding content that appeals to X’ers means you loose boomers is wrong.
I think we have to remember who our core readership is and how to reach them,” said Tom Griscom, publisher and executive editor. “You can still go after young people, but we are clearly focused on getting that group that grew up as readers.”
After hearing of the idea at other places, Griscom and the Times-Free Press did their own research and began to consider how, and if, the idea for news targeted specifically for baby boomers would work.
Here’s the fun part. The research was conducted among the newspaper’s staff. The publisher / editor asked the boomers in the NEWSROOM if they thought it would work.
The boomers initiative was launched after the first of the year, and every day since, Times-Free Press readers have been able to check the top of their front page near the masthead to see what baby boomer stories are in that day’s newspaper.
I’d love to see a story list that they have identified as boomer stories. I’m guessing they are general interest stories that would appeal to all of their readers. As a boomer, I hate the banner illustrated below: its condescending. Riding a roller coaster is the “ride of their lives.” C’mon.
Here’s another heads-up for you Chattanooga Times-Free Press. Boomers aren’t your core audience anymore. Sure, the top of the age 50+ still qualifies, but the lower end of 40-45 is vunerable.
I agree, a newspaper can’t take any age group for granted, but the future lies with X’ers. Spend more time trying to appeal to them and we boomers will keep reading. We don’t need labels to tell us what appeals to us.
