How to make your newspaper younger

Posted by Manuel Mantilla on March 27, 2007 at 11:52 AM

Not only the TV, the radio or the internet can be successful. To have a brilliant future, newspapers must become more interactive and promote the right of citizens to participate, said one of the editors of “El Correo” Newspaper, Monserrat Lluis. She won last week the “Young Readers” Prize of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).

Lluis went in September 2005 to the last “World Young Reader Conference” in Buenos Aires (Argentina) searching for new ideas for her newspaper, El Correo (Spain). After that, she has led an important transformation process: now, not only has the number of young readers increased; their participation in the different pages and sections of the newspaper is significant.

Before this revolutionary renovation, El Correo used to receive about 30 readers´ collaborations per day. Now, there are 500. Instead of only leaving a few pages to the readers, such as “the typical mailbox of letters to the Director,” the journalists provide a face and personality to animate the discussion, to participate and respond. “We have decided to open to the readers almost all sections of our newspaper”, said Lluis. The readers have about 30 places in the newspaper where they can send letters, articles, photos, etc.

That is why El Correo advocates a “Total Youth Think” philosophy. This means giving everyone, young and old alike, a new approach to the newspaper, based on what younger readers´ demands: access, interactivity, a different language, more colloquial. Now, 75% of the readers of El Correo are less than 40 years old.

“We do not speak only the language of the young people. To facilitate interaction we use all the possibilities of technology: sms, mms, e-mail, web and, of course, phone calls and traditional letters”, said Lluis.

“It is the conviction of each and every editor of El Correo that it is time to give citizens access not only to a section, a couple of pages or a weekly supplement, but throughout the newspaper”, she says. “In the era of multimedia and interactivity, the reader no longer is an anonymous person who swallows what you say to him and, if he does not agree, can only complain to his partner or to the waiter in the bar where he reads the newspaper”.

“In our newspaper the citizen contributions are welcome”, declared Lluis. But this has made us also to put much of our attention about the rigor and professionalism of the regular content. “We continue taking care of this at maximum”, affirmed Lluis.

Source: WAN / Monserrat Lluis, Editor Enlace, El Correo, Spain

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