• Ad Age, Thursday, March 30, 2006 10:45 AM

Six newspapers have been selected to participate in a wide-ranging experiment sponsored by the Newspaper Next project, which is charged with helping to invigorate the industry. Objective: Find better ways of doing ... well, practically everything.  With newspapers getting battered from all sides, but particularly from the Web, the Newspaper Next initiative was unveiled earlier this year in an effort to stop the downward slide. This week the American Press Institute-sponsored project selected six papers (from among 18 candidates) to spend several months concentrating on fresh, previously untried methodologies on both the print and business sides.  For example: The Record in Hackensack, N.J., and the North Jersey Media Group, will rethink its online efforts “from scratch” to deliver more information and community-engagement offerings for a wider range of users, including people with little interest in news itself. The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., part of Advance Publications, is working with a newsroom team on strategies to increase readership in a fast-growing suburb.  Media General in Richmond, Va., plans to experiment with research techniques to gain new, unique insights into problems that Richmond businesses can’t solve with today’s advertising programs.  Results of these experiments will be reported toward year end.

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