Dear Oprah,
You might think that I look to The New York Times or The Economist or Entertainment Weekly or even the latest blogs for innovative ideas on how to save newspapers.
But no, Oprah, I look to you and your magazine to take us to the Promised Land.
More and more readers are leaving their newspapers on their doorsteps, unopened and unread. Many other folks no longer even subscribe. How do we win them back? There's no silver bullet. But Ms. O, I think you've got some of the answers, particularly when it comes to attracting women and minority readers.
Newspapers need to break news. That's what keeps readers coming back. We should never abandon our franchise in going hard after news.
But at the same time, we have to do more than that. Our front pages and our features sections need to appeal to the aspirations of our readers -- people of all incomes and cultural backgrounds who want to live better lives.
That means offering them relevant, helpful stories and local resources on the topics they care about: health, food, home, family, fashion, and travel. And we need to deliver that information in a personal and engaging way. (For supporting research, consult the Readership Institute of the Media Management Center at Northwestern University:
www.readership.org.)
Oprah, you and your magazine's staff know how to approach these lifestyles topics. And you do so in a way that's inclusive.
That's key. Our readers have a lot in common. They want healthy families, loving relationships, good homes, and safe neighborhoods. But their experiences and approaches in creating those environments can be different according to their cultures.
If we journalists ignore that diversity, we'll risk making our lifestyles coverage inauthentic and monochromatic. We'll risk turning away more readers.
Recently, Oprah, I leafed through your magazine (the one with the headline: "The comforts of sex") and had these Aha moments about what resonates with readers:
Advice: Your readers gobble up Dr. Phil, Suze Orman and the Satellite Sisters. Your readers want advice on relationships, finance and other topics, but they also want to know what other readers are going through. Newspaper editors need to take a second look at the advice columns they run -- and whether they appeal to a diverse readership. Two years ago at
The Dallas Morning News, we launched
"Consejos," a bilingual advice column geared toward young Latinos. It's now syndicated and runs in several papers across the country.
Success stories: Your magazine is full of stories about ordinary people who have overcome challenges in their lives. Readers want to know who these people are, and how they succeeded. In a newspaper, that sense of hope and accomplishment (along with tips and local resources) can offset the gloom and doom in the rest of the news report. We journalists need to examine how we cover health, fitness, nutrition and parenting, and make sure we include success stories from diverse communities.
Personalities: The success of your magazine rests on the credibility that you've built over the past two decades. Oprah, people trust you and have faith in you. We in the newspaper business need to look at the writers who've developed similar long-term relationships with readers. We need to promote them as personalities in the community. That's one way readers can feel more connected to their newspaper. Our metro and features columnists are just the right kind of personalities to do this, and they'd better be diverse. Recently, our features section launched a Sunday column called
"Building Bridges," which encourages readers to ask questions about race. It seems to work, because the writer, a veteran columnist, has an ongoing relationship with readers. He has a track record of reporting about race in an even-handed way.
The staples of everyday life: Oprah, your magazine includes departments on health, books, relationships, food, style, fashion and beauty. We must commit space, staff, and resources to these topics. Not only that, but we need to hire a diverse group of journalists to cover them. Which is not to say that only minority journalists can report on their own cultures. But a diverse features staff will help us pay attention to topics like hip-hop fashion, interracial dating, Latin fusion cuisine, Asian-influenced home design and Ha Jin's latest book -- and cover them in a way that's informed by personal experience.
Reader orientation: The stories in your magazine are clear, simple and relevant to readers' daily lives. Your editors ask: What will readers take away from this story? Why should they care? How can readers apply what they have learned? You know who your readers are: Intelligent, engaged women from diverse cultural backgrounds who are balancing work, family and relationships. We as journalists need to know who our readers are, and what they're interested in, and what matters to them. That doesn't mean that readers necessarily know what they want. And it doesn't mean that we pander to them. And it doesn't mean that we shy away from bad news. But it does mean that, with each and every story, we ask: How is this relevant to our readers? How can we better connect with our readers? Again, diversity on our staffs can help us begin to answer those questions.
Dear Oprah was written by Thomas Huang and discusses how...
