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http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=11891
Topic: Letters Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 10/12/2006 11:04:14 AM
Title: Walter's 15 tips
Posted By: Jim Romenesko

From JOHN WALTER: Re: LAT investigative team to find ways to re-energize readers.

WAYS TO REENERGIZE READERS
1. Go out in street, see news, write it up.

2. Fire any reporter or editor who refuses to learn how to use the Web to its greatest advantage, or to experiment with what works on Web vs. what works in print.

3. Increase the distinctions between Web and print -- but make both, in their own fashion, complete.

4. Celebrate the idea that news is many things -- investigative, features, trends, results. Key daily news meeting question: "Does the public NEED us today?"

5. Kill all daily news meetings, and send the editors out in street (see No. 1 above.)

6. Yank all columnists who write with the word "I" or cutesy variation thereof; run no column that contains not an ounce of new reporting; hold public execution in town square of any columnist who writes "searching
for a column topic" column.

7. Ban "clever, humorous" rewriting that tries too hard (see: Newsmakers columns); preferably, allow no one over 30 to try humor. On the other hand, run no dull stories.

8. Drop all non-informational, space-eating graphics, and every house ad.

9. Run obituaries and weddings for free, and increase the type size in classified.

10. Print the damn paper in register.

11. Announce that for home delivery customers, the paper will once again be found inside their screen door, not in the puddle in the driveway. Every home, every day.

12. Make the paper actually, really available at newsstands and convenience stores, at a reasonable price. Don't reduce the press run on ABC "elimination" days.

13. Spend not one penny more on consultants.

14. New newsroom rule: Answer phone calls. Respond to e-mails. On weekends and vacations, talk to real people.

15. Forget about reenergizing readers; it's the paper that needs fixing.