DOCUMENT RESUME ED 415 542 CS 509 667 TITLE Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (80th, Chicago, Illinois, July 30-August 2, 1997): Newspaper. INSTITUTION Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. PUB DATE 1997-07-00 NOTE 503p.; For other sections of these Proceedings, see CS 509 657-676. PUB TYPE Collected Works Proceedings (021) Reports Research (143) EDRS PRICE MF02/PC21 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Content Analysis; Electronic Text; Family Violence; *Females; Higher Education; *Internet; *Journalism Education; Journalism Research; Motivation; *Newspapers; Presidential Campaigns (United States); Teaching Methods; Writing Processes; Young Adults IDENTIFIERS Colorado (Denver); Media Coverage; New England ABSTRACT The Newspaper section of the Proceedings contains the following 16 papers: "Reader-Friendly Journalism's Lasting Impact: A Study of Reporters and Editors Involved in Knight-Ridder's 25/43 Project" (Kris Kodrich); "An Analysis of Online Sites Produced by U.S. Newspapers: Are the Critics Right?" (Jon Gubman and Jennifer Greer); "Self-Promotion and the Internet" (Steve J. Collins); "Is the 'Women's Section' an Anachronism? Affinity for and Ambivalence about the "Chicago Tribune"'s WomaNews" (Melinda D. Hawley); "Assessment of Lead Writing Practices in U.S. Newspapers" (Gerald Stone); "New Study Contradicts Medsger's 'Winds of Change'" (Fred Fedler; Tim Counts; Arlen Carey; Maria Cristina Santana); "Journalism's Status in Academia: A Candidate for Elimination?" (Fred Fedler, Arlen Carey, and Tim Counts); "Newsroom Topic Teams: Journalists' Assessments of Effects on News Routines and Newspaper Quality" (Kathleen A. Hansen; Mark Neuzil; Jean Ward); "Net Gain?: New England's Online Newspapers Assess Benefits and Drawbacks of Their Electronic Editions" (Mary Jane Alexander); "Newspaper Readership Choices of Young Adults" (Carol Schlagheck); "Changing Values in the Newsroom: A Survey of Daily Newspaper Staff Members"(M. David Arant and Philip Meyer); "Newspaper Editors' Policies and Attitudes toward Coverage of Domestic Assault" (Wayne Wanta and Kimber Williams); "Sisyphus or Synergy: Effects of TV-Newspaper Collaborations on Voter Knowledge" (Jurgen Henn); "A Big Enough Web for the Both of Us? Online Coverage of the 1996 Election by Denver's Warring Newspapers" (Jane B. Singer); "Newspaper Nonreadership: A Study of Motivations" (Gina M. Masullo); and "Untangling the Web: Teaching Students How to Use Online Resources and Critically Evaluate Information" (Stan Ketterer). Individual papers contain references. 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INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 1 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Reader-friendly journalism's lasting impact: A study of reporters and editors involved in Knight-Ridder's 25/43 Project 1997 AEJMC National Convention Newspaper Division Chicago, Illinois July 30-August 2, 1997 Kris Kodrich Doctoral Student School of Journalism Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47401 (812) 857-7624 (Home) (812) 855-2841 (Office) [email protected] 3 Reader-friendly journalism's lasting impact: A study of reporters and editors involved in Knight-Ridder's 25/43 Project Abstract On Oct. 11, 1990, Knight-Ridder kicked off a grand journalistic experiment called the 25/43 Project at The Boca Raton News, a sleepy 25,000-circulation newspaper in South Florida. The company invested millions of dollars in a bold move to attract baby boomers tonewspapers. This is a qualitative study of the attitudes of some of the journalists involved in the project. Today, many of the reporters involved in the 25/43 Project believe they damaged newspapers more than they helped them to survive. Many are predicting at the very least a smudged future for newspapers. "Newspapers, in attempting to redefine themselves, have destroyed themselves," says former reporter Phil Scruton. But one of the strategists of the 25/43 Project says some reporters never quite understood what the project was all about and still don't. "It wasn't about them or Boca Raton it was about finding ways for newspapers to connect to readers," says Mike Smith. 4 Reader-friendly journalism's lasting impact: A study of reporters and editors involved in Knight-Ridder's 25/43 Project Introduction Many people think of wealthy socialites and gorgeous beaches at the mention of Boca Raton. But for journalists, visions of pink flamingos come to mind. On Oct. 11, 1990, Knight- Ridder's pink flamingo landed in Boca Raton and its flutterings are still felt throughout the journalism world. The impact of the grand journalistic experiment called the 25/43 Project is reflected in newspapers big and small across the nation. The Boca Raton News, a sleepy 25,000-circulation newspaper, became the centerpiece ofa multi-million-dollar experiment touted by its corporate parent, Knight-Ridder,as a bold move to attract baby boomers to newspapers. And the new colorful newspaper, emblazoned witha pink flamingo at the top and bursting with graphics, maps, charts, indexes and short stories, kickedoff in grand style. Big bucks were spent on rollout parties for the staff and the community. No expense was spared on advertising human billboards wandered the humid streets, banner- pulling planes buzzed the crowded beaches. "Have you seen the latest News?" seemedto shout from every corner, every TV. For the journalists who put out the paper, called simply "The News," itwas a mind- boggling, exciting time. The paper attracted the attention of not just the trade journals like Columbia Journalism Review. In-depth stories appeared in The New York Times and Washington Post. Newspapers as diverse as the Wall Street Journal and USA Today did major featureson the crazy paper in South Florida that never jumps a story to a different page. Even nationally syndicated columnist Russell Baker was writing about the 25/43 Project, thename Knight-Ridder conjured up to reflect the ages of the targeted audience. The journalists who worked in Boca Raton including the Knight-Ridder strategists who ran the show, others hired specifically to help produce the new and improved paper, and those 5 1 employees already working there were the envy of their peers. Or the butt of their jokes. On the one hand, the Boca Raton journalists were on the front lines in the battle for readers. In the battle to save newspapers. Who wouldn't want to be a part of that? But on the other hand, the Boca Raton journalists were accused by some in the national media of selling out. Of producinga lot of fluff, not substance. Of pandering. So now, five years after the grand experiment began, and the money, large staff size and excitement of the project are nothing but a distant memory in the Boca Ratonnewsroom, how do the reporters who worked the front lines in Boca Raton feel about their legacy? Do they think they helped save the newspaper industry? Or do they believe they hastened newspapers' eventual death? And what are the attitudes of the project's directors? Do they believe they madean important and lasting impact? That is the subject of this study. The author was an assistant city editor of The News from October 1990 to November 1992. Background and significance of study The 25/43 Project was intended to appeal to readers too busy to read a newspaper. As implemented at The News, it offered short stories major news stories were about one-third as long as before and none of them could "jump" to another page extensive use of graphics, including locator maps on local, national and world news pages, a full-color weathermap, and more positive news, including a daily "Today's Hero." Knight-Ridder spent at least $3 million on the project, which developed prototypes in Columbia, S.C., before moving to Florida. Togear the newspaper specifically to the South Florida audience, the project held as many as 30 focus groups (Benson 1992) with readers and advertisers, got more than 300 responses from readers of The News on what changes they would like in the paper, and hired a market research firm tosurvey Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Deerfield Beach residents about their reading habits and reaction to prototypes (Guy 1990). As Knight-Ridder President Tony Ridder described it, "What we decided was to make a new newspaper from the front page to the last. We triedto 2 find out as much about the people of Boca Raton as possible, how they led their lives,what they were thinking, what they did, what interested them. And then we tried to design a paperwe thought would work for them (Cosco 1991) ." Mediaweek said of the results: "The reincarnated News takes USA Today severalsteps further. Boca's "readership-building