Centre Daily Times Unveils First-In-The-Nation Approach to Attracting Young Adults

STATE COLLEGE (PA) – The Centre Daily Times has unveiled a first-in-the-nation approach to attracting young readers by wrapping a tabloid section for 18-34-year-olds around its newspaper.

The section, distributed with the paper at dozens of locations in downtown State College and on Penn State's campus, is called Blue and produced primarily by a staff of five young journalists.

The Knight Ridder newspaper, with a 25,000 daily and 34,000 circulation mostly in Centre County, home to Penn State University, will publish Blue Monday through Friday.

It will include a lively mix of news, entertainment and sports. The first issue is September 2.

Unlike other efforts across the country to attract young readers, most notably Red Eye and Red Streak in Chicago, Blue will not be a stand-alone publication. It will supplement the Centre Daily Times and include several links to bring readers into the paper itself.

"Developing Blue has been one of the most exhilarating and exhausting things I've been a part of,' said Henry Haitz III, publisher and president of the Centre Daily Times. "We're able to do this because of the many high-quality people we have who already produce an award-winning newspaper. Blue is a great side-dish, one we need, but the CDT core product is still the entree.'

Like newspapers across the country, the Centre Daily Times has its lowest readership among adults ages 18-34. While 79 percent of Centre County's 113,000 adults read the paper in print or online at least once a week, only 21 percent of those ages 18-24 say they see the paper.

The Centre Daily Times joins The New York Times and USA Today in a readership program at Penn State which began in 1997. All 42,000 students at the University Park campus can pick up any of the papers at dozens of newspaper racks across campus and in each dormitory.

When planning Blue, the Centre Daily Times enhanced its distribution system and installed newspaper racks in downtown State College apartment buildings and high-traffic areas.

Blue will offer Penn State and State College news each day, with an emphasis on public safety with a comprehensive crime log from campus and town. It also will include student commentary on the news, a Penn State personality of the day, and news of interest from the hometowns of students, across Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Blue will include a steady dose of entertainment and celebrity news, featuring an around-town entertainment grid and reviews of the latest movies, video games and CDs and DVDs.

In sports, Blue will feature daily commentary on students' hometown pro sports from writers at The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It will offer additional news from Penn State athletics, a daily feature on a student athlete, and commentary from the Blue sports editor and a student fan. It also will introduce a fan line for readers' daily comments about sports.

Blue also will include 'themed' pages on jobs, cars, apartments, health and fashion, offering news to use along with news to young readers. And the majority of Blue content will be featured on the newspaper's Web site, www.centredaily.com.

The majority of wire service reports in Blue will come from KRT Campus, part of Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. KRT Campus serves college media clients along with Knight Ridder newspapers.

"We're confident we have a strong content mix and a talented staff to make Blue a dynamic publication from day one,' said Bob Heisse, executive editor of the Centre Daily Times. "We've worked hard in recent months to make our plans a reality.'

Kelly Palmer, who joined the Centre Daily Times staff two months ago, is the editor of Blue. She has three years of daily newspaper experience and previously worked in Cortland, NY. She is a native of Rochester, NY.

Brett Colton, who created the design for Blue, has been a graphic artist at the Centre Daily Times for three years. Last year he won the top graphics award in the state for newspapers the size of the Centre Daily Times. Colton lives in Bellefonte.

Adam Smeltz, a Penn State senior, is the news reporter/editor for Blue. Smeltz, a State College High School graduate, has been contributing to the Centre Daily Times for seven years.

Gisela Garcia, a graduate of Penn State in May, is the entertainment reporter/editor for Blue. She is a native of Puerto Rico and previously served an internship there at a fashion magazine..

Jeff Rice, a graduate of Penn State in May, is the sports reporter/editor for Blue. He served as sports editor of the Daily Collegian, the student newspaper, last year. He is a native of Lancaster.

A team of student writers will contribute regularly to Blue.

The Centre Daily Times began working with Urban and Associates, a world-renowned newspaper consulting firm, 18 months ago. Dan Cotter, chief operating officer, helped the newspaper study its market and develop the concept of Blue. Cotter also held focus groups and helped in refining the product.

Urban and Associates developed a marketing campaign around Blue, including "To Get it Read, It's Got to be in Blue," and "U Can't B2 Blue." The firm also developed a drink responsibly campaign for Blue, and guidelines for effective advertising to young adults.

"We couldn't have produced a section this good, with this great a chance of success, without Dan Cotter leading us through the many steps that have prepared us to launch September 2,' Haitz said. "His oversight has made a considerable difference.'

Cotter said, "At its core, the Blue concept is similar to other geographic zone initiatives that many newspapers use to reach highly attractive portions of their marketplace. However, in this case and in the case of most university town newspapers, the audience in this particular geography is also demographically homogenous with similar lifestyles. Thus, Blue is a very unique 'geo-demographic zone' concept.'

The Centre Daily Times last year was named Newspaper of the Year in Pennsylvania and has won the Keystone award for best of its size in the state six years in a row.


For more information, call VP/Executive Editor Bob Heisse at 814-231-4640 (e-mail: bheisse@centredaily.com), or President & Publisher Henry B. Haitz III at 814-231-4680 (e-mail: hhaitz@centredaily.com), or visit www.centredaily.com.

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