With its last redesign in 1995, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis decided it was time for a change. It was also an opportunity to use design to attract new, younger readers. Cory Powell, assistant managing editor of design and readership of the Star Tribune, led the American Press Institute's "MediaPreneurship" seminar attendees through the steps that took a newspaper with a ten-year old look to a paper with a Twenty-First Century one.
The Process The Star Tribune's process of changing its design involved three major steps: research, goal identification, and execution. Data from external organizations such as the Readership Institute showed that the average reader spends 22 minutes on a newspaper even though the average newspaper takes three hours to read. Focus groups and surveys helped the Star Tribune segment its readers into five categories:
Elite readers who enjoy national newspapers like the New York Times and use the Star Tribune for local news only
Core readers who have a newspaper habit
Media-savvy readers who get their news from many sources
Light readers who only see the paper a few times a week
Detached readers who rarely look at the paper because they think it's irrelevant to them.
Because the core and the elite readers were likely to continue reading the paper as a part of their lifestyles, the editors of the Star Tribune decided to target light readers, which made up 60% of the paper's readership. To identify their interests, the Star Tribune asked young adults to design two front pages: one with articles taken from the original front page and another with articles taken from anywhere in the paper. Here are the results:
The original, staff-designed cover features a story about a woman who is walking every street in Minneapolis; the "improved" cover made a minor story from the original front page on the anniversary of the Miracle on Ice the new lead story; for the experiential cover, the focus group made a poker story that was originally buried deep inside the paper the lead story.
The paper then tested these three pages using random sampling at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. The "experiential" design was the favorite by a 3 to 1 margin.
After doing the research, the Star Tribune identified the following as goals it wanted to accomplish via the redesign:
Modernize the paper and its Web site (design and content)
Expand the reach of the Star Tribune, taking aim at the big readership issue
Integrate print and online operations
Provide an authoritative guide to its Web site in the paper
Position the Star Tribune for the future
Execution:
To accomplish these goals, The Star Tribune:
Modernized the design:
The paper changed the typography, added more white space, used smaller headlines, and introduced wider columns
Incorporated new approaches to storytelling:
Because the average reader spends one-third of his time on visuals, the Star Tribune started to use a greater variety of storytelling forms and incorporating more visuals. Some examples include lists like the "Seven things you may have forgotten about snow" and a photo-quiz (left) as opposed to a text-heavy story about snow or people who have recently been in the news.
Redesigned StarTribune.com at the same time, including a new homepage with easier navigation.
Introduced new content to attract younger readers and women.
A "Source" section features a different topic for each day of the week, usually focused on things like how-to, style, and health, which attract more women and younger audiences. The Star Tribune now covers more entertainment news, and has added humor throughout the paper.
Established a continuous news desk:
The center of the traditional Star Tribune newsroom is now a continuous news desk, giving the culture of the newsroom a 24/7 mentality and allowing the newsroom to plan for Web site updates around the clock.
Widening the scope of the front page:
The front page now includes enhanced skyboxes and a "Have you heard?" box featuring odd tidbits that readers can talk about. This content and the skyboxes are selected by a promotional content editor in the newsroom.
Evaluation:
The initial flood of emails and letters were mostly negative. However, these were from a group of long-time subscribers. As far as Powell can tell, no one dropped a subscription due to the design changes.
Since October 2005, the rate of circulation decline has slowed. Readership is up and Sunday circulation is beginning to turn around, says Powell.
What's next:
Continue to develop an internal culture that welcomes change. The Star Tribune hopes to experiment with quick implementation of good ideas and quick abandonment of bad ones.
Ongoing evaluation
The newspaper will continue to collect reader feedback on its new designs. An extensive reader survey will be conducted this fall.
Adding more reader-friendly features The Star Tribune is beginning to experiment with a new approach to travel writing. Recently, the newspaper did a special feature on unexplored frontiers such as the Great Barrier Reef and Tongass National Forest.
Powell says the paper is revamping the Sunday paper by icluding less "hard news" on the front page. For example, the recent Mother's Day cover featured a "Celebrate Mom" headline.
