Top agency executives reacted with surprise and chagrin late Tuesday after hearing ABC's plans to keep "8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter" alive following the death of its star John Ritter. They also said the move underscores just how desperate ABC is for some primetime traction that it would go to such lengths to keep the show on its schedule. "I can't believe it. How desperate can they be? Has ABC management watched an episode? It's all about him," said David Marans, director of consumer insights at MindShare, referring to the character portrayed by the late actor. "It's classless and moronic," said another top agency executive. Though at least one thought there was some business logic in the move. "From a business point of view, what do they have to lose," said Steve Sternberg, senior VP-director of audience analysis at Magna Global USA. "The show is going to have a lot of curiosity associated with it and they may end up getting more viewers than they had before. The question is if ABC can make them stick with it." "After much introspection and discussion with all the parties involved, we are going to go forward with the show," Lloyd Braun, chairman of the ABC Entertainment Television Group, said Tuesday during a conference call to brief reporters. He said ABC would air the first of three new episodes starring Ritter when its new season premieres on Tuesday, followed by the two additional new episodes and a series of repeats until a new episode can be produced that deals with the death of Ritter's character. Instead of writing around the actor's death, Braun said ABC would tackle it head on with future episodes focusing on the show's characters' reactions to the loss of Paul Hennessy, the father character portrayed by Ritter that was the central figure in the family-based sitcom. "We will not be recasting John," said Braun. "We will play out this situation as real life has interceded." "That's sort of what happened with Jean Stapleton and 'All in the Family. And look what happened there. The show didn't last very long," noted MindShare's Marans. "This is a no-win situation for everyone: the viewers, the network and the producers of the show." But Magna's Sternberg said that also means there is nothing to lose by the network giving it one more shot. "Let's face it, despite all the press coverage, this was not a hit show. It was borderline at best. There will be a lot of interest in this show going forward. Let's see if ABC can make it work. "
Tribune Publishing and a weekly tabloid pioneer announced Tuesday that they would join forces to create a free daily newspaper aimed at the young New York City commuter by the end of the year. Tribune, which already publishes the weekday Red Eye in Chicago, will own the majority of amNew York, with former Boston Metro publisher Russel Pergament running the paper and owning a minority stake. While Pergament is keeping details of the paper close to the vest, amNew York is expected to follow at least to some degree the format of the highly successful Metro papers that have sprung up in Philadelphia and Boston: A 40-something page tabloid, with short stories and a design to snag young readers, heavy on entertainment news, with free distribution throughout Manhattan and the boroughs. When amNewYork debuts sometime in the fourth quarter, it will join a growing list of free or low-cost dailies that have begun popping up to address what has for many years has been the newspaper industry's biggest problem: How to attract younger readers. Since at least the 1980s, the industry has been studying ways to get younger readers interested in the newspaper the way their parents and grandparents were. Some initiatives, like Newspaper in Education, tried to use classrooms to build familiarity. Editors began more lifestyle and entertainment coverage, shortened stories and raised story counts in an effort to mimic TV on the printed page, and splashed color and graphics throughout the pages. But a decline in afternoon paper readership (which led to youngsters not seeing newspapers as a daily ritual), an increased reliance on TV for news and finally, the rise of the Internet in the mid- to late 1990s has thwarted the industry's efforts to win the youth vote. A 1998 University of Chicago study found that only about a fifth of 20- to 29-year-old read the newspaper daily, compared to almost half in 1972. Similar studies aren't as bleak but show similar declines: Scarborough Research found that 38.8% of teens and young adults had read a daily newspaper in 2001, compared to 44.6% in 1996. A telephone survey by the Newspaper Association of America found the 35% of adults 18-24 had read a newspaper the day before and 45% the previous Sunday, compared to 74% of adults 55-59 yesterday and 82% of adults 55-59 the previous Sunday. In recent years, a Swedish newspaper publisher brought the free daily model successful overseas to the United States in Philadelphia and Boston. Last year, Tribune's Chicago Tribune created a much-talked-about daily called RedEye that targeted the 18- to 34-year-old urban professional in Chicagoland. It sparked a similar tab called Red Streak by rival Chicago Sun-Times. Both cost 25 cents a copy. In August, The Washington Post launched Express, a free weekday daily. "It's certainly a reaction to the fact that there's a high degree of interest on the part of newspapers to reach out to the young reader that is so captivating to the advertising community," said John Kimball, chief marketing officer at the Newspaper Association of America in Vienna, Va. "How do you do that? Clearly one way is to see if you can present news to them in a different context, a different format, with a different style of writing and a different business model." Brian Steffens, a former editor of Editor & Publisher and executive director of the National Newspaper Association in Columbia, Mo., said there isn't one answer to solving the industry's youth problem. He said newspapers are continually upgrading the printed product (witness the Miami Herald's recent redesign) and looking to create products that aren't necessarily news on paper - including updates via cell phone and other wireless devices, along with the Internet - in an effort to reach as many people as possible, wherever they are. "[Previously] papers had clung desperately to the printed product. I think they're starting to see they've got to deliver it in different ways," he said. Media economist Miles Groves said it's another channel to reach readers, albeit one different from the traditional newspaper. "They're trying to reach an audience that they haven't been able to engage very well," Groves said. He said that the niche strengthens the brand and, taking a step back, reinforces the fact that newspapers mean more than just ink on paper. "The Chicago Tribune is not just the Chicago Tribune newspaper. It's a whole host of things in that community. Any newspaper in any community is more than just another business," Groves said. Tribune and the Washington Post company clearly hope that their products will bridge the gap between non-readers and regulars, forming a habit that will end up turning the 18- to 34-year-olds into readers of the traditional newspapers. Jean Mansfield, senior vice president and group media director of MediaVest's Halogen unit, isn't sure that's going to happen. She said that magazines do that - readers of 17 moving to Cosmo, then getting married and reading Oprah Winfrey's and Martha Stewart's magazines, then moving to Modern Maturity when they reach a certain age, for instance - but she doesn't know if the day-to-day newspaper reader can follow that path. It works for magazines because they're so tailored to big events in readers' lives, she said. There's also the Internet, where many youth - and not an insignificant portion of Generation Y and Baby Boomers - go for their news. An NAA study in 1998 found that teen-agers looked for quick and timely sources of information. "That's the challenge to print," Mansfield said. Another issue for advertisers will be who reads the papers. Mansfield said that the new-style papers aren't measured and there's no way for planners and buyers to find out the value of the consumer reading. "The challenge is gong to be from the newspaper perspective demographically, and be able to present that to planners and buyers and assure that people are reading your paper," Mansfield said. "There's always the concern that the newspaper is sitting in the lobby of the high rise or a plastic newspaper stand and no one is really taking it." While the new tabs don't compete editorially against established news weeklies in their markets, they do sometimes go after the same advertisers. Jane Levine, chief operating officer of both the Chicago Reader and the Washington City Paper, doesn't think her free weeklies compete editorially against "the Reds" nor Express. "Express and Red Eye and Red Streak are news, daily newspapers ... It's what happened yesterday. Just the facts, as short as possible," Levine said. "our papers are feature papers. They ask more questions about what's going on and try to get a fuller picture. That's not better or worse. It's just really different." Levine doesn't doubt Tribune's claim that it had signed on 150 new advertisers for Red Eye in its first year, although it hasn't affected her advertising base. "We haven't lost any existing advertising. I think the only challenge that we felt so far is that advertisers we don't have that we go to call on, that are interested in expanding who they're reaching, they're already in the Trib," Levine said. "It's just easier for them and way cheaper" to add the Red Eye to their Tribune media spend. Levine said that alternative weeklies, and her publications in particular, reach an age group mostly between 21 and 44, with 75% of the readers being single with high disposable incomes. She said that's different from the targeting of papers like Red Eye, Red Streak, Express and the Metros. "These papers are going after, and I don't think very successfully, an age. They want 18 to 34, period, young for young's sake. What the reader of our paper is and always has been is more of psychographic and a lifestyle," Levine said. Richard Karpel, executive director of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies in Washington, D.C., said that the free daily tabs are going after young readers but that's not necessarily what they'll get. "Who they're going to get is people who have very short attention spans. Our [alternative weekly newspaper] readers tend to be pretty intelligent and open to spending time with the newspaper. These newspapers ... are designed to be 15 minutes and throw them away. Our papers provide more depth in what they do," Karpel said. "I'm not making any kind of judgment. They're making no bones about it. They're trying to get people who don't read." Floyd Weintraub, director of corporate relations and corporate affairs for the new amNewYork, said the Metro's success - here and overseas, particularly with a non-affiliated London paper - show that the model works. He said amNewYork will be able to reach a demographic that has been elusive. Karpel said New York City's a tough place for newspapers, not just for the paid dailies but also for the free circulation papers. "Because there are so many free circulation products out there, it's become much harder to distribute," Karpel said. "This new free paper in New York is going to be that much less space for everyone else."
Like the industry it covers, Editor & Publisher magazine is struggling to adapt to the explosion of new media options. After more than 115 years as the weekly bible of the newspaper industry, E&P will begin a new phase as a monthly magazine beginning in January. The title, a unit of VNU's business publications, will focus more on immediate news on its Web site and create a fatter, more feature-oriented magazine. E&P will finish the rest of the year as a weekly and then publish its first monthly edition somewhere around Jan. 10. In a statement released on its Web site, E&P said the change will allow it to keep more on top of the fast-breaking news of the newspaper industry. Editor Greg Mitchell said Tuesday morning that E&P's 10-member editorial staff is constantly debating whether a story should be put up immediately on its Web site or held for the weekly magazine. "We heard more and more from our readers and even non-readers that wanted to be involved with us, that they're getting their news from the Web and hate waiting around for the magazine," Mitchell said. "Times have changed and people want the information sooner rather than later." Mitchell said it was an evolution for E&P. "It's a natural development. We're not doing it out of panic," Mitchell said. No members of the editorial staff would be cut, which he said was unusual for a publication whose frequency was being changed. While Mitchell acknowledged that times had been tough for E&P, with ad pages down and the freelance budget cut a year ago, he said that advertising conditions had improved in 2003. But that didn't always translate into more ads. The revamped magazine's format is still being worked out, but Mitchell said it would include 50% more coverage than the weekly E&P. He declined to term it as a shift from print to the Web. "We are continuing to have a focus on print," Mitchell said. "We'll be serving the readers better while at the same time expanding the Web." Part of the enhancements to the Web site will be a redesign that will focus on six areas of readership: Newsroom; online journalism, corporate/financial affairs; technical/printing/pressroom; advertising and marketing; and syndicates. The Web site redesign will make it easier for readers who are interested in these topics to find content. Editor & Publisher's history goes back to 1884, when a predecessor publication called The Journalist was founded. Editor & Publisher itself was begun in 1901 and merged with The Journalist six years later. Two other trades, Newspaperdom and The Fourth Estate, were acquired. Today, it's part of AdWeek Magazines, which includes Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek and others.
When Weight Watchers International bought its eponymous magazine back from Time Inc.'s Southern Progress arm in 2000, the company essentially had to start from scratch. Cooking Light had siphoned most of the magazine's resources - nearly all staffers stayed with Southern Progress - and the publishing giant showed little inclination to sell back the subscriber list to Weight Watchers. "We basically had nothing except the brand name," recalls vice president and publisher Wayne Perra. Of course, that brand name is worth a considerable amount within the fitness and nutrition community. In its 40-odd years of existence, Weight Watchers International has evolved from a weekly weight-loss discussion group in the parlor room of company founder Jean Nidetch to a global behemoth offering hundreds of products and services. More than one million people attend Weight Watchers meetings every week; unaided awareness of the company among U.S. consumers is around 90%. And while none of this meant a whole lot when Perra and his charges were left with the shell of a once-successful magazine, it didn't hurt, either. Following a fairly severe plunge in circulation - from 1 million to 350,000 - Weight Watchers started to rebuild, a process which Perra says was more difficult than expected. "The subscribers who still wanted the magazine were a little bit frustrated," he explains. "They don't care about corporate transactions. They couldn't get the magazine unless they paid for it again and then asked for a refund from Southern Progress, which made things difficult." Three years after the reacquisition, Weight Watchers has finally grown its rate base back to the one million mark. The most recent Audit Bureau of Circulation FasFax shows an 11% increase in readership during the first half of 2003, while the Publishers Information Bureau reports a 27.9% surge in ad pages and a 159.2% surge in ad revenue during the first eight months of 2003. Granted, Weight Watchers still lags far behind former Southern Progress sibling Cooking Light (246 ad pages/$11.5 million ad revenue versus 882/$46.9 million), but the title has clearly emerged from its post-acquisition obscurity. "Getting our MRI numbers and getting back to one million [circulation] were important," Perra notes. "That's the number that gets you more readily accepted. It gets you onto media plans." The mag's rebound was slowed by Perra's own insistence that it grow in a way that would ensure long-term survival: "Having fly-by-night advertisers doesn't do much for anybody. We wanted A-list advertisers." An editorial shift was also necessary in order to reverse some of the changes that had been made during the Southern Progress tenure. "They tried to make the magazine more general," Perra continues. "Creatively it was a really good magazine, but to most people the Weight Watchers brand means weight loss and weight management. [The publication] had gotten a bit away from that." Though the magazine has seen recent gains in the pharmaceutical category (Zocor, Prevacid, Vioxx), Weight Watchers seems to have a significantly more narrow range of advertisers than its competitors. Paging through a recent issue of the magazine, it's hard not to notice the near-total absence of print mainstays like cars and cosmetics. Clearly this is a source of frustration to Perra, though he downplays the overall effect. "I guess some of these companies don't want to be in a magazine that focuses on weight loss, even though people who buy the magazine may spend as much money on those products as anybody else," he says. "We can't worry about that. What we have to do is put out a solid magazine with a really clean rate base. That's what will make those advertisers say 'this is worth taking a chance on.'" Though Weight Watchers plans to increase its rate base to 1.05 million in January (and potentially to 1.1 million or beyond in January 2005), the magazine may well have to grow substantially more to attract primary targets like Ford and Chevrolet. "A lot of media planners question whether they get enough reach from a magazine with a circulation of one million," Perra notes, a bit irritably. "What we have to do is get in front of them and say 'if our readers are spending 2.7 days reading the magazine, it's not because they have reading problems. It's because they love the magazine.'"