Don't sit still for low readership.

Editorial pages are important. But only if people read them.

Yet editorial departments often are so focused on writing that they don't pay enough attention to whether people are reading. Or to what they can do to attract more readers.

I got an eye-opener about five years ago when The Wichita Eagle completed an editorial readership study. It found that only twenty-one percent of weekday readers were "very likely" to read our editorials. The numbers went up significantly when those who were "somewhat likely" to read were included, but it was still discouraging.

If your paper hasn't done its own readership study lately, try this simple test: Watch people read your newspaper at McDonald's or in a doctor's waiting room and see how long they spend looking at the editorial page.

You'll likely be humbled, especially if the readers are younger than age sixty-five.

And you had better hope that your cost-conscious publisher isn't conducting the same test. He or she may decide that your editorial page doesn't draw enough readership to justify its staffing level.

But readership isn't just about job security--though I'm all for that. It's also about increasing your newspaper's reach and influence.

It's tough to be effective at championing causes if not enough people read what you write.

So, besides compelling writing (which we're giving readers already, right?), what can editorial pages do to attract more readers? Here are two suggestions: Add features aimed at casual readers, and treat your pages as a product that you must sell to busy consumers. Even if it makes you uncomfortable.

For example, many editors have professional objections to anonymous call-in lines. But here is something important to consider: Readers love them. The Eagle's Opinion Line is the best-read feature on our editorial pages, hands down. Most important, it draws readers--including high school and college kids who are our future subscribers and blue collar workers who ordinarily might not turn to our pages. Once they stop and read Opinion Line, it's my job to get them to read a letter, column, or editorial.

If a call-in line is more than you can stomach, there are other ways to draw new readers.

For example, I noticed during the 2000 presidential election that it wasn't our editorials that had people talking politics at the watercooler; it was a "Saturday Night Live" skit or Jay Leno joke.

Features for younger adults

So the Eagle editorial staff created several satirical features aimed at younger adults and baby boomers who are interested in public life but not public policy. These include a satirical headline contest; Seuss-atorials; a cartoon caption contest; a locally focused crossword puzzle; dubious achievement awards; and a "guess who said it" game, in which readers match photos of local public officials with goofy quotes from the newspaper.

We also developed "serious" features aimed at expanding readership. Examples include "blog" style pro/con debates, student editorials, and reader forums targeting minorities or other under-represented groups. I'm also working with the Wichita design community to develop "visual commentaries" for our op-ed page.

Media convergence is another way to expand your reach. The Eagle editorial department uses an e-mail database to solicit reader opinions. We also started a television interview program and put video excerpts from it on our web page.

And though many editorial page editors fight to keep "Doonesbury" or "Mallard Fillmore" off their pages, I have a different view: If these cartoons draw readers (and they do), I'm all for them.

But creative content and targeted features are not enough. To attract readers, editorial pages also need to sell themselves.

I approach each feature on our page with a simple question: How can I attract reader attention? The answer usually involves art, design, and compelling headlines.

For example, editorials in many newspapers are plain and unassuming. But I want people to notice what we write. So our editorials have large, bold headlines, and we try to include a photo, illustration, or information chart with every editorial.

Other newspapers, such as The Mercury News in San Jose, do even more. They break out of the left-column template and treat their editorials like op-ed pieces, with six-column headlines and display art.

Editorial pages also shouldn't be above marketing. Talk to your advertising or marketing departments about creating house ads or, better yet, billboards and other external advertising that promote your pages. Work with the news department to promo your columnists of other special features.

In other words: Sell, sell, sell.

This kind of thinking may not be what many journalists had in mind when they joined the editorial department. But we shouldn't assume that people will read us, or that our department is too important to suffer staffing cuts.

On the contrary, because what we do is so important, we need to make sure we attract as large and diverse an audience as possible.

Phillip Brownlee is opinion editor of The Wichita Eagle in Kansas, E-mail [e-mail]