Circulation figures
Average weekday circulation of the nation's 20 biggest newspapers for the six months ended Sept. 30 as reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.
1. USA Today, 2,230,899, down 0.5 percent 2. The Wall Street Journal, 1,800,607, up 1.1 percent 3. The New York Times, 1,113,000, up 0.3 percent 4. Los Angeles Times, 965,633, down 0.8 percent 5. The Washington Post, 746,724, down 1.8 percent 6. New York Daily News, 715,070, down 2.5 percent 7. Chicago Tribune, 613,429, down 1.3 percent 8. New York Post, 590,061, up 10.5 percent 9. Newsday of New York's Long Island, 578,809, up 0.3 percent 10. Houston Chronicle, 552,052, up 0.04 percent (a) 11. The Dallas Morning News, 521,956, up 2.4 percent 12. San Francisco Chronicle, 512,129, up 0.02 percent 13. Chicago Sun-Times, 479,584, up 0.5 percent 14. The Boston Globe, 463,113, down 1.7 percent 15. The Arizona Republic, 448,782, down 0.6 percent (a) 16. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 408,557, up 0.3 percent 17. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 381,833 (b) 18. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 379,139, up 0.6 percent (a) 19. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 373,892, up 2.4 percent 20. Detroit Free Press, 368,839, down 0.7 percent

MM

Meet the Lansing State Journal's tab for 18- to 34-year-olds -- Noise. It beat the RedEye and Red Streak out of the gates, launching Oct. 23 and makes much more liberal use of words like ass, bitchin', condom and butt. It also provides an in-depth report about how to have sex in the woods.

How can these publications possibly hope to attract a group for which they have such obvious contempt and low regard?

In the Tribune's case, I'd say it's arrogance. In the Sun-Times case, I'd say haste. But for Noise, the only explanation I can come up with for this is that it isn't even trying to be a "news"paper. It has only three-quarters of one page (ah, that's a tabloid size page) devoted to news -- it contains five briefed versions of Lansing State Journal stories. The other 47 pages are devoted to ads, bar reviews, tech bits and interviews with local celebs who pass on sage nuggets like, "You don't have to do fart jokes to prove you're edgy."

The editor's intro letter, in which Rich Ramhoff apologetically points out that he is (gasp!) older than 30, sets the stage all too well. I've taken the liberty of highlighting some of the really hip parts:

I didn't even want to write this letter because editors' notes often turn out to be 1) self-absorbed, 2) pretentious, or 3) flat-out boring. And NOISE should never be any of those... We're trying to write for and about people our age -- people in their 20s to mid-30s. (OK, so maybe I'm the only staffer who is over 30, but I'm also the worst dresser, too.)
Our stories will be told with snappy visuals as well as strong words. We'll give you a lot of information, mostly about places to go and things to do ... but also things like competing in paintball tournaments, building a yoga butt and celebrating Halloween at work. ...
Most importantly, we want you to have fun reading NOISE. That's why you'll find some strictly tongue-in-cheek articles, like our outdoor whoopee guide.
The next step is to hear from you. Tell us what people and ideas you think we should cover. Tell us when we're full of crap. Go to www.lansingnoise.com to rant. ...
So does this mean that if you're over 40 you shouldn't read NOISE? Heck no, but don't call us if you have a conniption every time you read the word “condom,” (see pages 10 and 12). ...
We want to build something that you'd actually want to read. Something that cuts through the clutter of free media - the Internet sites and radio and TV shows. That's the bottom line. So stop reading this lame letter and have fun reading the stuff inside.

Any good things about it, you ask? Well, it has a lot of useful ads, particularly classifieds. And its Web site seems decent, certainly better than the Tribune's RedEye site apparently geared toward advertisers. (Hello, Tribune, we're the wired generation. You can't launch a publication for us that doesn't have a Web site.)

MM

On launch day, I was pleased to find out that I live in such a demographically desireable neighborhood -- there are boxes for both papers at the end of the street by my Dunkin' Donuts. The Tribune spent big bucks on newspaper boxes with helmets on them. The Sun-Times, working hasitily, slapped some red stickers on old, reconditioned boxes. From what I've read, its a good metaphor for how the publications came together.

But in terms of what's inside, I do have to say that I think the Sun-Times is on the right path. I think Red Streak is a much better product with much more local, city-focused news. Today, they had actual stories on the cover. The Tribune had a self-promoting, top-ten list (ah, with nine items) about why you should read the paper. Red Streak has better columnists, too. But, then again, the Metromix pages in RedEye are pretty good.

Maybe we can do a JOA -- taking the best of each -- when they start failing next week.

There's much more to talk about, but I thought I'd at least throw the covers up here for our out-of-town friends.

Newspapers are trying to figure it out. There are a lot of different experiments going on:

• The Guardian in London uses them -- very well -- to track complex, ongoing stories and tie in coverage and information from outside sources. The Guardian defines its approach as "our pick of the best journalism from around the Web." Hmm ... is this the start of newspapers setting themselves up as the evaluators, prioritizers and organizers of information -- and not necessarily the creators? Instapundit.com's Glenn Reynolds thinks so. "I think we've moved profoundly from the older period in which news was a lecture," he says. "Now the job is that we tell you what we have learned, you tell us if you think we are correct, then we all discuss it."
• The Journal-Times in Racine has a couple Weblogs and acknowledges that each is "a little bit newsy, a little bit opinionated." They've started with fairly innocuous topics: Packers and prep sports. (OK, maybe the Packers aren't innocuous in Wisconsin.) Anyway, they're planning a third on called "JT:A look behind the scenes at the decisions that shape newspapers." I wonder how honest they'll be? I can't wait for it to launch.
• Kuro5hin has been running with group Weblogs, where anyone can post on any topic and readers can comment on each others' posts. Readers and topic activity also determine what the top news of the day is on the front pages. That's also the model used by Plastic. Newspapers have message boards, but nothing quite like this. Group weblogs would be interesting community-building features. I wonder if legal concerns are blocking these.

Not only are they common, but they're getting really bold and big. Check out today's Vancouver Sun and today's Le Monde in Paris. The ads basically fight with the dominant art. Ha'aretz in Tel-Aviv had a quarter-page ad on the cover, with big orange punctuation marks.

Duh. Of course it is.

The 11 media companies represented on the committee made $102.6 billion in sales in 2001. Minus "infotainment" specialists like AOL and Disney -- which, interestingly, lost $5.2 billion in 2001 -- the newspaper companies made a profit of $2.24 billion on sales of $31 billion. That's about 8 percent in one of the worst advertising climates ever. I'd say there's a little money to be made in journalism. The study is interesting reading, though. E&P summarized it this week and the full report is available here or at the Aspen Institute Web site. In the reports you'll see that the group identified these key problems:

• The definition of ‘journalism’ is changing. Oprah is news.
• Financial foundations becoming more tenuous. Everyone's going niche and technology like TIVO (A'hem, Daniel) lets people skip ads.
• News department a small fish in bigger companies. Mickey Mouse and Christine Amanpour work in the same building.
• News culture is defensive and change-averse. Maybe we're averse because it's getting worse.
• I'd like to add my own: Managing companies to meet quarterly expectations on Wall Street.

• Setting up a 'Values’ committee on the board of directions of communication companies. No good unless it has some real power. Instead, leaders of these companies should be journalists.
• Better communication between the editorial and business. Maybe it was better when we weren't talking so much.
• An industry-wide campaign to educate the public about the importance of journalism and raise level of ‘journalistic literacy’. This one's a good idea. I can't tell you how many people call asking me to write an "ad" about their business. It's sad we have to do public service announcements, but at least we can get the ads cheap.

Quick, name the five -- yes, there are five -- protections it guarantees. If you want to see the answer, click on the "comment" link at the end of this post. And, no, there aren't just four.

Anyway, as interesting as the talk was, equally interesting was our session with the of the Newseum afterward. We were talking about ideas for what could be done with the new facility being built at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. (Unfortunatley, it's closed in the interim.)

The mission of the museum, they say, is to help the public and the media better understand each other. So what I'd like to see them do is use those wonderful interactive displays -- where you explore ethics, select stories and shoot photos -- to collect information FROM visitors about what stories they want to read, what they expect and how we could make newspapers more useful to them. Might be interesting to take oral histories of people who have appeared in newspapers and ask them about their exerience.

The Readership Institute surveyed 37,000, but the first incarnation of Newseum got 2.2 million through its doors. There must be some way to collect a valid sample. It's particularly interesting because the museum is a popular stop for junior high and high school groups -- the readers we're most worried about losing.

I am, however, relieved to hear there is no study dooming my kind (natural blondes) to extinction in a few decades -- as reported by the New York Post, ABC, CBS, CNN and several foreign newspapers. They all cited a non-existent study by the World Health Organization.

These days we're letting this stuff slip through because we're rushed, gullible, lazy or believe that because we saw it repeated on more than one Web site we've got multiple-source confirmation. I can't decide if that's better or worse than the era when newspapers used to do it on purpose to sell more papers than the competition.

The Discovery Channel page has an interesting little section on newspaper hoaxes written to intentionally mislead -- and spur sales. My favorite is the 1835 New York Sun series on the "bat-winged, human-like creatures spotted living on the moon." It was confirmed by the Edinburgh Journal of Science ... which didn't exist. Edgar Allen Poe eventually got in on the action, too.

I do concede that not all of today's media hoaxes are rooted in stupid errors. It's pretty much still the business model of the National Enquirer and Star. In fact, the Enquirer's well-known Bat Boy cover is a wonderful nod to Benjamin Day's pioneering New York Sun moon hoax.

On the surface it seems odd that people will continue to pay to be misled. But maybe people just really want their newspapers to entertain them.

The news section continues to be exceedingly traditional, gray and thoughtful. But, they've really developed an edge in other areas:

Health: They have a10-page section devoted to the topic. This week's had three meaty stories: a historical look at the art of anatomy and how the perception of the human form has changed; an article about boomers who are caring for their disabled siblings as their parents die; and a story about life aboard a Medvac chopper. All interesting, but, even better, they were surrounded by great standing features.
• Lean Plate Club is a column looking at eating more healthfully;
• Walk the Walk features a new walker each week, where they go and how they stay motivated;
• health related letters;
• reviews of health books;
• column on health care cost and coverage trends;
• Quick Study, a digest of new research on research and treatments;
• health calendar;
• and health news briefs.
There is a lot of ad support here: a directory of doctors, hosptials, insurance plans, body scan places, nursing home, weight loss, plastic surgery, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, health expos and drug stores.

KidsPost: Every day the Post is running this page on the back of Metro or Style, rewriting and reframing the day's news. I've seen other papers try this kind of thing, but most do it weekly. Our own section runs Tuesdays -- and what good is that if the kid picks up the paper on "wrong" day. The Post also is not dumbing it down too much or making it look like a comic strip -- they seem to be aiming for early middle school with a newspaper-like look. I think they have the right idea.

My favorite story today was the reframing of the West Coast port situation. The KidsPost lead: "For a while, it looked like new toys might not arrive in time for the holidays. But yesterday, President Bush asked a court to order West Coast ports to reopen." Talk about bringing it home. The adult lead, FYI: "Saying the nation's economy and security were at risk, President Bush today secured a court order to temporarily reopen West Coast ports and force docworkers and their employers to continue negotiations."

Gannett acquires one-third interest in job site CHICAGO (AP) -- Gannett Co., owner of the nation's largest newspaper group, has acquired a one-third interest in the online and print job-search company CareerBuilder LLC. Terms were not revealed, but Gannett will have an equal share of CareerBuilder with Knight Ridder and Tribune Co. "Combining CareerBuilder with the resources of our 94 newspapers, 22 television stations, and related Web sites will further advance our position as the leading recruitment solution in our local markets," Gannett chairman Douglas H. McCorkindale said. At least $1 billion of the estimated $8 billion recruitment advertising industry now appears online. With Gannett's one-third interest, CareerBuilder will now deliver local help-wanted ads to a combined Sunday circulation of 15 million through about 130 newspapers, according to company officials.

And, it’s a tab that already has those kind of 18-34 lures like Susanna's Night Out. Susanna hops from bar to bar and takes pictures of herself with celebs or groups of happening people. This city will soon have an embarassment of media riches for an 18- to 34-year-old gal like me. Guess I'll no longer have to read Mary Schmich -- who now realizes that she is dated.

The crew they’re bringing in to help with this project comes from the former Copley dailies surrounding the city. These are the folks that brought you the very average Web Street Cafe. This site is geared toward teens, but it still doesn't show evidence of a keen understanding about how to reach the young ones. For one thing, it doesn't look MTV-slick at all. I've checked this site occassionally during the last two years and only recently has it been resurrected and updated.

So, Hollinger's will be rushed and it will be put together by a B team. And, for the Tribune, I continue to have issues with the associations to the name RedEye. My search of the Tribune’s own Web site for "red eye" turned up some other associations to add to my own: Birds mating at Brookfield Zoo; fond recollections of POW camps in the Midwest; cameras set up on Chicago street corners to monitor cars; and Elvis Costello T shirts.

So if this isn't the right answer about to reach young people, what is? I think one place to start the hunt is to take a look at where young people spend their time now -- online. Seems like we have more tools than ever at our disposal. Never before could we tell what stories people were reading, how long they looked at them and how they found them. Big companies can watch their own traffic numbers, which skew young. The rest of us can look at Yahoo's top viewed, New York Times' most emailed, The Buzz and Zeitgeist.

There's a lot going on out there that we don't pay attention to in newsrooms. If we won't go out, maybe we need to bring kids in once in a while. At the very least we need to watch and listen instead of relying on the ol' young-people-like-entertainment formulas. In checking the Buzz tonight, I see that KaZaA was the most requested search and it prompted me to look it up and learn about this new peer-to-peer file swapping software that may make sharing MP3s kind of legit.

It looks like pretty standard stuff, but this is big. It's not every day you get a chance to meet an Official Newspaper Cat Columnist. Johnson chronicles his life with Foo Foo and Skittles -- and his wife Vivian -- in a column in the paper's living section. Twice a week, readers get slice-of-life anecdotes like:

"Our youngest cat, Skittles, has a drinking problem. No, she is not an alcoholic, although she would probably suck up booze if she could get it. The problem is that she will drink everything else she can find in a cup or glass. I always keep a glass of water on my nightstand. One night I woke up and heard something kind of strange. Sort of a slurp, slurp sound ... I don't know how long I'd been sharing water with the cat, but I had to start covering the glass."

• Our youngest cat, Skittles, has a drinking problem (10.2.02)
• Skittles becoming a live paper shredder (09.28.02)
• Who knew a chair could provide fun for the cats (09.25.02)

The creator describes it: The sports page can be accessed just as easily from the front page by flipping the front page down first, instead of upward. In a similar fashion, the reader may more easily flip backward or forward at any time whilst reading the paper, in order to browse ahead for stories, or check back on a story they have already seen. The reader can now do this more comfortably whilst even standing on a train, tube or bus on the way to work in the morning.

1. Burning, stinging eyes -- possibly from reading too much. 2. Miserable travel experiences on late night flights. 3. Hangovers. 4. Bad flash photography. 5. Conjunctivitis.

CNN tries to get hip in search for younger viewers for headline news service NEW YORK (AP) -- Is CNN Headline News down with it? The cable network is trying, judging from an effort emanating from its executive suite to think young. CNN Headline News general manager Rolando Santos told the San Francisco Chronicle this week that he's looking to mix "the lingo of our people" -- words like "whack" and "ill" -- into newscasts to attract young people. And the New York Daily News on Wednesday quoted from an e-mail sent by a network manager to his headline writers, sending them a copy of a slang dictionary so they can be "as cutting edge" as possible. "Please use this guide to help all you homeys and honeys add a new flava to your tickers and dekkos," the message said, referring to graphics on the Headline News screen ...

"I've been reading the paper for over 35 years and I still can't believe you're putting the business section backward. Who thought that was a good idea? Why would you make your paper harder to read? It looks like you did this to put an ad on the front. Well here's some news, I don't need to buy ads. I want to be able to find the news. I think its very, very rude on the part of the paper. If this continues, I think I will make a change."

To: Editor From: Lynn [Withheld ] Subject: Business section
I am expressing my displeasure with the new location of the business section and obituaries. In today's [withheld], articles addressing business, the economy, employment, etc. are most important to the consumer. Placing this very important information in a remote section of the paper (behind the [Withheld] Dodge full page ad) is very problematic ... The first time it appeared that way I had folded that section up and placed it in the recycling bin ... Lynn [Withheld]

9:47 AM Mystery Caller | Hello I'm calling to tell you how much we really dislike the new way the business and obituary section in the [Withheld] is set up ... The last couple of days the paper has not been easy to read -- This ain't China -- we read from left to right and not the other way around.

"After seven years of aggressive investment in local Internet operations, the newspaper industry has refocused its efforts not on obtaining new customers with new applications that the Internet can reach, but on serving its traditional advertisers."

To: Editor From: Fred [Withheld ] Subject: 09-24-02 art. Mize
I don't know but I went to school when one had to be careful about what one said or put into print. Over the years I have witnessed a more blunt attitude of we will go ahead with this project no matter what. The Old Testament is chuck full of of how that self-god thinking always came around and bit the originator in the butt. Today's writers and leaders are heading for the rath of God, which is what comes around will go around.The saying, history repeats itself, is a cover up for sinning.
09-24-02 the article about Mr. Stan Mize caught my attention. I confess I'm not a newspaper reader but my wife is. This man makes a staatement about selling unsafe cars and you put it into bold print no less and because the adverage man makes more money today it's all right to rape his wallet for more loot, WOW. Let's see, he put families into cheap dangerous cars to make himself money and you blow a trumpet proclaiming how great he is. God gives talent and intelligence to certain individuals so they can take advantage of us poor not so smart people, great philosophy you have there. I got some advise for you and Mr. Mize; enjoy your heaven on earth because it will soon make alot of dust.
Fred [ Withheld ]

To: Fred [Withheld] From: Editor Subject: Re: 09-24-02 art. Mize
Mr. [Withheld] --
I believe you misunderstood Mr. Mize's statement. He was saying that his long-time customers thought the old cars were better, but he believes the new cars are much safer and last longer. He was not saying that he knowingly sold unsafe cars.
You may disagree and you are certainly enititled to your interpretation of Mr. Mize's statements. However, you are not entitled to stand in judgement over my soul. Enjoy my heaven on earth? How dare you. You know nothing about me.
I have some advice for you Mr. [Withheld.] It comes from Proverbs 19:2, "It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way."
Editor

To: Editor From: Fred [Withheld ] Subject: Typicle,
Qouted your article and the Bible and you get personal. Thankyou for putting me in my place; I'll not venture into your domain again.
Fred [ Withheld ]