Enhancing Readers' Experiences
An analysis of how newspapers in Sacramento, New Orleans and Cleveland deliver content

The proposition was pretty simple. Find three metro dailies of comparable size that have had success with readership growth and ask young adults to analyze them. Could they make suggestions that would make the newspapers even better?

That was no problem at all for a group of young analysts chosen by the Media Management Center to examine the same month's worth of copies from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Sacramento Bee, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Their content audits and quality analysis found plenty of room for improvement:

• A majority of the stories were written from the perspective of older generations;
• Baby Boomers and pre-Boomers;
• The papers did a poor job of representing diversity in their stories;
• Coverage of nightlife activities was almost non-existent;
• The newspapers missed opportunities to put more emphasis on images;
• Reporting should be adapted to make stories more interesting to younger generations.