Opening Up the Front Door: Strategies for Better Page Ones

Can newspaper front pages help boost circulation and increase readership? Juan Antonio Giner, founding partner of INNOVATION International Consulting Group, says yes. He believes that innovative thinking on a newspaper's front page can expand audiences and make newspapers a more integral part of the modern lifestyle. He shared his idea at one of API's newest seminars, "Page One: Content, Presentation, Brand." Giner discussed lessons learned from newspapers both domestic and overseas. Among the most important ones:

Lesson 1: Quality, not quantity
When the Miami Herald asked its Sunday-only subscribers whether or not they wanted to receive seven-day delivery for an entire year at no extra cost, only 15% said yes. When the French paper Liber-III expanded from 48 to 96 pages with no increase in price, circulation dropped from 200,000 to 85,000. These numbers show that readers won't automatically pay for extra volume. With commuters demanding smaller papers and other media vying for consumers' time, more compact newspapers are gaining readers at a faster pace. Less should also be more on the front page. Giner says cramming seven articles onto the cover can create an eyesore; instead he suggests sticking to the point with a photo-montage.

Lesson 2: Mirror reporting vs. window reporting
Newspapers cannot afford only to reflect the news, but must provide a lens through which to evaluate it, Giner says. Consumers already know that the world is a dangerous place. They want their newspapers to prepare them for the world by helping them understand it. Knowing how many people died in an accident won't help as much as knowing why the accident occurred. The front page should be a place to advertise the expertise of the newspaper. For example, the job of a headline is not only to announce, as with the words "We Got Him" in reference to Saddam Hussein's arrest, but also to probe: "What's Next?" When newspapers around the world reported the death of Al-Zarqawi by featuring a posthumous photograph of the terrorist leader, The Economist distinguished itself by featuring a young Zarqawi on its cover and focusing its article on the future with the headline, "Iraq After Zarqawi." The Economist addressed the next step in a recent cover on the death of Al-Zaqarwi.

Lesson 3: Uncover news - don't just report it.
Why did the New York Times focus on an unknown man named Harold Hagen on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall? Because, says Giner, since Mr. Hagen is a worker who witnessed the crumbling of the barricade ten years ago, he could provide a new angle for readers. Today, when television, radio, and the Internet can all report information more quickly than newspapers, print media still have one advantage - journalistic experience. Sell more newspapers by featuring exclusive coverage on the front page. Television can take a viewer to the scene of a natural disaster, but a newspaper can reveal the science beneath it.

Lesson 4: Rules are meant to be broken
Who said that every cover needs an image? Who said that every cover needs text? Great Britain's Independent breaks both of these rules with innovative, attention-grabbing covers. One issue featuring Robert Fisk's ground-level report of Middle Eastern politics opened as a justified block of text across the paper's front page. Its September 12, 2001, cover, on the other hand, shows only an image of the Twin Towers. Interesting covers will give people not only a reason to buy the newspaper, but also a reason to read the paper. When newspapers and magazines pile up on desks, only the innovative ones can avoid the trash bin:

This recent cover catches the eye by featuring a picture of a tie as opposed to a newsmaker.

Lesson 5: Dangers in the safe way
One surefire way to the land of the forgettable is to create a front page that looks like every other front page, says Giner. Yes, the crash and the death of the crew of the space shuttle Columbia was devastating, but the consumer doesn't need to be told so by a dozen different papers. Instead, the consumer is more likely pick up a copy of the Oakland Tribune that asked "What Went Wrong?" By sticking out, the newspaper establishes an identity as well.