Suggestions to attract readers range from haiku to blogs.The numbers aren't good. The percentage of Americans who regularly pick up a daily newspaper has declined over the past three decades. Nationwide, fewer than half of those who do read a paper go to the editorial and op-ed pages with any frequency. How do editorial page editors and writers make their pages more appealing and relevant to readers? And can the editorial and commentary sections of newspapers be used to attract new readers? Mary Nesbitt, managing director of the Readership Institute at the Media Management Center at Northwestern University Northwestern University, mainly at Evanston, Ill.; coeducational; chartered 1851, opened 1855 by Methodists. In 1873 it absorbed Evanston College for Ladies. , advocated attracting new readers by making opinion pages more appealing and relevant. Opinion pages vary little, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Nesbitt. "They're pretty much the same from one community to another." She urged her audience to "try some experimental stuff, not just incremental Additional or increased growth, bulk, quantity, number, or value; enlarged. Incremental cost is additional or increased cost of an item or service apart from its actual cost. stuff." Among the ideas suggested by participants: * Attach a "debatables" box to news stories that lays out the issues, the pros and cons pros and cons Noun, pl the advantages and disadvantages of a situation [Latin pro for + con(tra) against] , and invites readers to respond * Writing editorials in haiku haiku (hī`k  ), an unrhymed Japanese poem recording the essence of a moment keenly perceived, in which nature is linked to human nature.
* Including information about how to contact legislators. Victoria Lee Hicks Hicks , Edward 1780-1849. American painter of primitive works, notably The Peaceable Kingdom, of which nearly 100 versions exist. and Rodger Jones of The Dallas Morning News explained how the paper's editorial writers are tapping into an Internet phenomenon-Web logs, or "blogs." The idea is to reach Internet junkies who might not be picking up a newspaper to develop "a unique and growing and uniquely engaged readership," Hicks said. On the Morning News editorial Web page, readers can find views posted by the paper's editorial writers that are not necessarily in agreement with the paper's institutional position. Readers are invited to respond. Their comments sometimes appear on the blog On The Blog is a British radio comedy series that was first broadcast in May/June 2007 on BBC Radio 2. It starred Andy Taylor as the nerdish wargaming blogger Andrew Glasgow who was the central character of the series. , though anonymously. Douglas MacEachern of The Arizona Republic suggested horizontal page design--rather than the traditional vertical layout--to create a sense of informality. He also suggested that editorial writers write on short subjects. Some examples of what The Arizona Republic has done to make its editorial pages more accessible are publishing a photo and inviting readers to suggest a cutline, or offering readers a two-page layout that introduces them to the Arizona legislature The Arizona Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Senate. There are 60 Representatives and 30 Senators. by way of a board game. MacEachern acknowledged that by creating a less formal page and a more familiar tone, there is a danger of eroding the paper's institutional authority. Nesbitt's suggestions for "content that connects" can be adopted for opinion pages: * Write about a mix of topics * Pay attention to high-potential topics * Use a variety of writing styles * Make the page easy to read * Get readers' attention by promoting opinion pages elsewhere in the paper. "I think you've really got to do more tooting For the crater on Mars, see . Coordinates: Tooting is a suburb in the London Borough of Wandsworth in south London. It is 5 miles (8.1 km) south south-west of Charing Cross. of your horn," said Nesbitt. Charlotte Channing is editorial page editor at the Kalamazoo Gazette in Michigan. E-mail CMChanning@aol.com |
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