Here are some ideas that are working in newspapers right now.

There was a time when I kept track of how many newspapers I worked with on-site. After 1,200 or so, I stopped counting. Add to that the hundreds of newspaper staff who attended the University of Tennessee Newspaper Institute, which I directed for 21 years, and the hundreds of newspaper staff I’ve worked with online over the past twenty years or so, and the total gets almost ridiculous.

After working with so many newspapers, it would be impossible not to pick up a few ideas along the way. One of the favourite aspects of my work these days is helping newspapers develop new ideas for their pages. Sometimes, they come off the top of my head. Most of the time, however, these ideas come from newspapers I’ve recently visited.

Bullet lists seem to draw a lot of responses from my readers, so allow me to share my thoughts in the form of a list titled ‘Fresh ideas to draw readers to your pages’. These aren’t all new ideas. We’ve simply gotten out of the habit of including some ideas in our papers.

Fresh ideas to draw readers to your pages

Present a page in the form of social media

Around 2000 or so, a Wall Street analyst specialising in media invited me to lunch to discuss an idea. Always one to accept a free lunch, I visited with him about an idea a group of investors developed using what’s now called ‘social media’ to create a website that would draw college students to post their thoughts and photos. I was so busy traveling to speak at conferences that I turned down the opportunity to lead the effort. I just didn’t see how money could be made on a free website (their idea was to make money selling academic books on the site). I consider that one of the three dumbest career decisions I’ve made.

I’ve since learned that people actually do love to share their thoughts and photos, and – thanks to the suggestion of a young publisher in Colorado – ‘Photos of the week’ are becoming popular in most of the papers I work with. I suggest a full page be set aside each week for submitted photos. Pick four or five and frame them, giving them the look of a photo album, and put them in the same location, on a colour page, each week.

Person on the street feature

About one-fourth of the newspapers I’ve worked with this year offer a ‘person on the street’ feature each week. Often, these are found on the left half of page 2. I’m not sure how that became a common location for this feature, but it seems to work. While leading focus groups, I’ve learned that this is often one of the favourite parts of the newspaper for readers, whether they’re reading in print or online. An added benefit: It’s a good way to get young adult faces in the paper.

Feature a human-interest story on the same page each week

A few years ago, a young reporter in Canada wrote to me in a panic. “We have a weekly news meeting where I’m assigned a story. This week, they told me to come up with my own story. What do I do?”

I laughed (to myself) and answered her question. “Go out in your community and find someone older than 90 years. Ask them to share their life story.”

You guessed it. A week later, she wrote me to report that readers were writing to tell her it was the best thing she’d ever written. The 20-year-old reporter was ecstatic.

Readers like knowing where to find things. Put your human-interest story on the same page each issue.

Build reader rituals

Predictability brings loyalty. That’s true in a lot of areas, especially newspaper readership. Find a few new weekly ideas to include in your newspapers. Some that I’ve seen work are:

• Student journalism page: Partner with schools to publish student-created pages monthly.
• Birthday shout-outs (sent in via email by readers)
• Historical photos: Most newspapers have a history section that includes stories from the past. Consider adding an image from the past in each issue of the paper. Make it prominent to draw the reader.
• Weekly polls or “sound off” column. Print community-submitted responses to a weekly question, e.g., “What business we don’t currently have would you like to see open in our community?”

Redesign the calendar

In focus groups, I often find the community calendar is one of the two most-read parts of the newspaper. Rather than including a bland listing of events, make an effort to design an attractive community calendar area each week.

That’s 800 words. My work is done.

Kevin Slimp is a consultant, advisor and trainer in the newspaper industry. He currently serves as chief executive of Market Sqaure Publishing and Chief Guru at NewspaperAcademy.com