Assessing USA Today
Posted on | September 14, 2007 | No Comments
I ripped USA Today this summer. Editor & Publisher offers a piece that suggests it did better than many thought. Would have been nice to have balanced out the piece, but that’s just me.
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September 15th, 2007 @ 7:33 am
Yeah, USA Today used to be little more than TV on paper, and it has improved. I guess. But they also taught us something about writing tightly. (Not that I always follow their example …)
Most important, this is what they did first, and brilliantly: They designed themselves with the reader at the center of the universe. They asked, “What do readers really want,” rather than, “What do they need to know?” And they did it from the ground up, unencumbered by the orthodoxy of the business. And they were maniacal about it.
NOT coincidentally, the most successful websites today are developed in the same way.
I read at least one paper every day — partly because of my job, partly out of habit. (Maybe also OCD.) But most of the people I know who could be regular readers are just too damned busy.
USA Today figured out that most people are quite happy and reasonably well-served with the headlines and a sentence or two.
Think: When was the last time you read more than one 1200-word article in a single edition?
(Fuller, you don’t count. Like me, you’re not the normal reader.)
P.S. Nice to find your blog! A mutual friend directed me to it.