Young Adult Readership: Connecting With the Millennial Market

April 3 - April 7, 2005

AIM THIS PAGE

Featured Discussion Leaders

Martha Galloway Marketing Manager, tbt Session: Marketing & Promotion: Best Practices for ROI”: Seminar participants share their most successful promotions and events that reach young adults.

Allen Kenney Reporter, Tax Notes Today

Elizabeth Lawton Web and Multimedia Producer, MKE, Milwaukee Journal - Sentinel

David Liu CEO, The Knot, Inc. Session: Session: Content that Connects – Learn the secrets of successful brand extension from this popular Web site, magazine, TV and book-publishing enterprise.

David T. Z. Mindich, Ph.D. Author of “Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News” Session: Today’s young adults are more interested in entertainment than news, observes Tuned Out author David Mindich. What can newspapers do?

David Nelson Chair, Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University

Andrew Satter Online Producer, Arizona Daily Star

Video: Click to see a clip of Rob Curley speaking at the 2004 Batten Awards

Contrary to conventional wisdom, newspaper reading is a habit acquired in youth. But today’s young adults are reading newspapers at nearly half the rate of the previous generation. Industry leaders now know that capturing readers between the ages 18 and 34 is the key to survival, and some are actually moving the needle on youth readership. This seminar will focus on the latest research on this market and what the most successful news companies are doing to reverse the current trends. A highlight of this seminar will be a daylong workshop on developing a business plan for niche products that resonate with young adults.

Who Should Attend and Why

This seminar is intended to be cross-departmental: Executives from editorial (news, lifestyle, business, sports, and other departments), advertising, marketing and online should attend as well as editors and other executives specializing in content for young adults.

Attendees will gain:

• “Big-picture” understanding of societal changes that affect youth readership.
• A guided tour of the informational wants and needs of young adults.
• Strategies for reaching young adults in daily newspaper coverage.
• Content ideas that play across platforms.
• The keys to building relationships with young readers.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

The problem of youth readership “is closer to a ‘crisis’ than many are currently willing to acknowledge, and some form of disruptive action is necessary immediately,” according to Confronting the Newspaper Youth Readership Puzzle, a report by the International Newspaper Marketing Association.

ROI: Opening and expanding a vital market for today and tomorrow.

Sunday evening, April 3

• “Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News”: A conversation with author David Mindich

Monday morning, April 4

• “Media Next”: An overview of changes in the media landscape and what they mean for today’s news media.
Discussion Leader: API President Drew Davis

• “We Media”: Learn to survive in a world of unprecedented empowerment and dramatic changes in how news is produced and distributed.
Discussion Leaders: Media Center directors Andrew Nachison and Dale Peskin

Monday afternoon, April 4

• “The Real Deal: How Young Adults Spend Their Time Online”: From RSS and SMS to peer-to-peer file sharing, find out how newspapers can tap into the new information networks.
Discussion Leader: Susan Mernit, Media Center Fellow

• “Finding the Niche, Extending the Brand”: Learn the secrets of successful brand extension from the most popular weddings Web site, magazine, TV and book-publishing enterprise.
Discussion Leader: David Liu, CEO, The Knot, Inc.

• "Marketing & Promotion: Best Practices for ROI”: Seminar participants share their most successful promotions and events that reach young adults.
Discussion Leader: Marti Galloway, marketing manager, tbt

Monday evening, April 4

• Seminar members break into clinic groups to tackle a case study in reaching young adult readers

Tuesday morning, April 5

• “Ignite the Revolution: Creating the Reader Experience”: Take away a game plan for moving the needle on young adult readership for your newspaper.
Discussion Leader: Mary Nesbitt, The Readership Institute

• “A Model for Youth/Newspaper Partnership”: Meet student theater critics and their mentors involved in an innovative program for youth arts coverage.

Tuesday afternoon, April 5

• “What Makes This Generation Tick?”: To know where people are today, focus on their generation, not their age.
Discussion Leader: Historian and author William Strauss

• “Building the Case for Content that Grows Readership”: What it takes to know this generation and deliver stories and ads that connect.
Discussion Leaders: Andrew Satter , Allen Kenney and Elizabeth Lawton, members of the Media Management Project; and David Nelson, Medill School of Journalism

Tuesday evening, April 5

• Clinic groups meet to come up with a plan for reaching the case study audience.

Wednesday morning, April 6

• Clinic groups report their plans to a panel of experts. (Fun and prizes!)
Discussion Leaders: “Mystery Guests” from the case study newspapers

Wednesday afternoon, April 6

• “The First Amendment and Free Expression”: Insights into the underpinnings of our democracy and what the First Amendment means to young people in America.
Discussion Leader: John Seigenthaler, The First Amendment Center

Thursday morning, April 7

• “Media Magic”: Tap into the creative force behind hyper-local, never-boring Lawrence.com and leave inspired to energize your news organization.
Discussion Leader: Rob Curley, World Online general manager

The Particulars

Please read:
:: API's Registration, Tuition and Hotel Policies
:: Special requirements for international members

Tuition: $2,225

Note: Payment deadline for all discounted tuition: February 4, 2005. All tuition is due prior to the start of the seminar.

Hotel/Meal Package: $800.
This charge is in addition to the tuition fee, and is paid directly to the hotel by the seminar member upon checkout.

Location: Reston

(This seminar has already occured)