PREMIUM SEARCH Search by job title, geography and build a list of executive contacts
Young people tend to thumb their noses at daily newspapers -- booooring. Only 39% of Generation Y adults read one, compared with 58% of baby boomers. Gen Y readers tend to be Netizens, spending hours trawling for news and entertainment on the Web. And when they do reach for a newspaper, it's more likely to be an alternative weekly, industry studies show.
After fretting for years, traditional newspapers are now looking to do something about that. They're launching spin-offs, special sections, and Web sites. They're drawing upon their young staffers to set an agenda that tilts toward music, sports, and sex.
Now comes the Chicago Tribune with one of the boldest bets yet. In the next few weeks, it plans to launch a tabloid called Red Eye. The 25-cent, five-day-a-week paper -- named to suggest the always-on-the-go lifestyle of its hoped-for readership -- will be sold at newsstands and bright-red vending machines. Using news from several Tribune Co. papers, plus special content from young writers, Red Eye will aim to offer tight, bright reads covering both the news of the day and fun stuff to do in the evenings, says John O'Loughlin, its 34-year-old general manager.
"BY YOUTH FOR YOUTH." The paper is designed as a quick read for a train or bus commute. Stories won't jump from one page to another. "The content must be written by youth for youth," notes Christine Wood, head of a Newspaper Assn. program that helps newspapers reach young readers.
For years, the Chicago Tribune has watched in frustration as a vast
legion of young adults ignored the morning daily. Gallup data
show that slightly more than 1 million adults in the 18-to-34 age bracket pick up the Trib at least once a week. That leaves a market of close to 1 million Trib-less young Chicagoans who just might reach for the Red Eye.
Although he declines to provide specific numbers, Tribune Publisher Scott C. Smith acknowledges that readership among younger adults is on the decline, even as overall circulation remains strong.
GANNETT TEST. Other papers are also gearing up for an assault on the youth market. Across town, the Chicago Sun-Times is preparing its own youth-oriented spin-off. And on Oct. 23, Michigan's Lansing State Journal will launch an independent weekly called Noise, in what may well serve as a test market for other papers in the Gannett chain.
The big question now is, will all this be enough to lure the hosts of Gen Y off the Net?
By Gerry Khermouch in New York and Joe Weber in Chicago Edited by Sheridan Prasso
Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.
Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed.
Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video.
To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here.
Copyright 2002, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Printer-Friendly Version
