What exactly are these new "content rings," which eventually will supplant the familiar color-coded News, Money, Sports and Life organization of both the paper and the USA Today website?
How does it happen that two young execs from USA Today's
BNQT action sports site are now in charge of all business development and digital development? Does success in covering dirt-biking and skateboarding translate to building a broad digital domain?
It is a long list, actually.
USA Today's print circulation and print advertising are both in a deep swoon.
Paid circulation has fallen 20 percent in less than two years and, at 1.83 million, is a full 500,000 below its peak in 2004.
USA Today has always been coy about what percentage of that circulation comes from hotel distribution, but it may have been as much as half.
Its deal with Marriott and other chains has changed. As any traveler can observe, the paper-outside-your-door pattern is far from universal anymore. At many hotels you now find a stack of USA Todays in the lobby or dining room, often as not next to a stack of Wall Street Journals.
Business travel,
USA Today's circulation lifeblood, has never rallied to pre-9/11 levels. Also, year by year, month by month, more of those travelers are packing a laptop or next-generation device so they have alternatives for a morning news fix, including a digital edition of their hometown papers.
The print advertising picture appears to be even grimmer.
Read more to learn about USA Today's decline and new hope for growth.