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Young Readerstion area. This new weekly productshould be twinned with thenewspaper’s free Web access, perhapsunder a different, hipper name thanThe Daily Bugle. Young adults like theWeb because it is virtually free and easyto navigate. Newspapers can use theweekly readership and Web site visitsto sell the merits of the daily printpublications. Some young people mightgrow into users of the Web, the weekly,and the daily. If not, two out of threeain’t bad.Newspapers can still do journalism.Washington Post executive editorLeonard Downie, Jr. and Associate EditorRobert Kaiser wrote a well-meaningbook in 2002 about the deteriorationof journalism in the United States. “TheNews About the News: American Journalismin Peril” detailed the public’sdiminishing appetite for hard-hittingjournalism. Other recent books haveechoed the same theme that entertainmentvalues are pushing journalismaside in many mainstream media. Thisis awful. Yet unless the most mainstreammedium of them all—newspapers—canfind a way to attract theyoung to their print and online sites,Pulitzer Prize-worthy journalism is goingto go unnoticed and unheeded,and the mainstream press eventuallywill lack the resources to do good journalismbecause advertising support willhave gone elsewhere.There is not a bigger challenge forthe newspaper industry to confront inthe early 21st century than winningover the young. Think Red. Think Web.■John K. Hartman is a professor ofjournalism at Central MichiganUniversity in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.He is the author of two books,“The USA Today Way 2: The Future”(2000) and “The USA Today Way”(1992). He has examined much ofthe research done on young adultnewspaper readership and is awidely quoted source on the topic.Jacqueline Hartman provided editingassistance to the author.John.Hartman@dacor.net.Lessons Worth Learning About Young ReadersYoung people will read newspapers and creative minds are figuring outhow to reach them.By Tom CurleyIreally like something that the Frencheditor Francois Dufour said aboutgetting young people interested inthe news. Dufour is pioneering thedevelopment of successful newspapersaimed at particular age groups, and hemade an important observation aboutteenaged readers: “Sports and musicnews are very difficult to cover becausethe audience is split among many differentpassions. You can’t say ‘I’m doinga newspaper for teenagers.’ Youhave to remember you’re writing for asegmented audience.”That’s excellent advice. It wasn’t solong ago that most newspapers had“women’s” sections, until it dawnedon editors that the label stereotyped,patronized and risked alienating halftheir readership. We shouldn’t have tolearn that lesson all over again withyoung readers.But having said that, there are somegeneral things that can be said aboutthe kind of news publications that willdraw readers of high school and collegeage. Again I turn to Dufour. I’mfamiliar with Dufour because at USAToday we made a careful study of whathe was doing as we looked for ways tomake our own publications more appealingto younger audiences. Hereare some of his prescriptions that Iconsider right on target:• Make it quick. Teenaged readers willgive you 10 minutes if you’re lucky,so your paper better offer fast-pacedwriting and easy layouts to navigate.• Make it newsy. Of course sports andentertainment are important. Butyour target is young readers whomight pick up a newspaper, andthose are most likely to be readerswho have a genuine interest in worldnews.• Make it useful. Information that helpsthem succeed at school, in or out ofclass, will bring these readers backfor more.I have a fourth nugget of wisdom,gleaned from The Collegiate ReadershipProgram that USA Today undertookin partnership with communitynewspapers and nearly 200 U.S. collegesand universities: Make it easilyaccessible and cheap. In fact, make itfree, or nearly so. A small surcharge ontuition and fees subsidizes the program,and the papers are stacked neardormitories or wherever they’re easyto pick up.The results are encouraging. Newspaperreadership on these campusesgrows by multiples, and many studentsstart reading more than one. An independentstudy shows that the newspaperhabit leads to greater interest inpublic affairs, which in turn spurs furthergrowth in newspaper reading. Thatmight be a good reason to hope for thesuccess of the free commuter tabloidsthat are now showing up in train andsubway systems of U.S. and Europeancities. These publications might kick-16 Nieman Reports / Winter 2003